Hunger
by JJBluebell
Summary: This is a story about a girl, just a normal boring girl, yeah ok that's a lie, maybe not so normal but she was a girl. A girl who had done awful terrible things that would make the devil himself shudder. However long ago it was it still lingered in her tattered excuse of a soul, but she was trying, trying oh so hard to be better... to be good. S4 SpikexOC
1. Chapter 1

**This is a Spike/OC fanfic I've had for forever. Do you think it's worth continuing?**

This is a story about a girl, just a normal boring girl… yeah ok that's a lie, maybe not so normal but she was a girl.

A girl who had done awful terrible things that would make the devil himself shudder. However long ago it was it still lingered in her tattered excuse of a soul, but she was trying, trying oh so hard to be better...

To be good.

But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves.

It started with a notebook, filled with scribbles and doodles, which had hit the floor of the deafing hallway without notice until a slender hand reached for it "excuse me!"

"Hey, Wait!"

Buffy and Willow turned back to see a girl with long curly black hair chasing them down the hall, her porcelain complexion making both girls stiffen slightly until they saw the light blush of her cheeks and remembered that it was a bit too bright out for their fanged friends to be running around.

A second later they were approached by their classmate who smiled with full pink tinted lips and big sparkling blue eyes "I think you dropped this."

"Oh my, yes, yes thank you! God, if I lost this, I mean, my notes, all the stuff from class, I mean…I" putting a reassuring hand on the red heads shoulder Buffy smiled sweetly "Breathe Will, she means thank you."

The black haired beauty laughed with a nod of her head, Buffy couldn't help but notice the twelve different layers of black she wore, from her shabby combat boots to her grunge style lace shirt. The only spot of color on the girl was the large baby pink bow pinning back some loose strands of hair. Willow smiled and rolled her eyes at herself "yeah right, sorry, thanks. You're new right? I don't remember seeing you in class before."

"Don't mention it. Yeah I moved here a few weeks back, took a little longer than I would have liked to get things sorted, but hey, I'm here now, learning and all that. I'm Louie by the way… Louie Creoboros"

"Buffy and my rambling friend here is Willow." They smiled happily at the girl before Willow spazzed out like a light bulb had gone off over her head "oh you should have lunch with us, what with you being new and so helpful with the returning of the notes."

Louie gave a toothy grin and Buffy couldn't contain the shiver that ran down her spine at the sight of the girl's pearly whites "that's really nice of you but I have a paper due, rain check for tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure, we'll save you a seat."

"Sweetness, later."

The two stared after the black loving girl for a moment, Willow smiling to her best friend "She seems nice."

Shaking off her paranoia Buffy took Willow's arm "yeah, I guess… hey do you know if they have those chocolate muffins today?"

More than a week had passed since the two girls had met Louie, and like promised she ate lunch with them, they found out she had an obsessive love of French fries with red salt and hated seafood so much that when she accidently ate a slice of pizza with tuna on she was violently ill. Yeah, it was gross and went all over Willows shoes and some of Buffy's dress. She promised to make it up to them though with a little shopping… that was nice of her.

She was nice, a little fuzzy on details and always seemed in kind of a rush but she was just a nice, sweet girl, right?

Then why couldn't Buffy shake off her Slayer-spidy-sense?

Giles got a call from Sunnydale Memorial, well we say got a call more like listened to the police scanner and heard a complaint made about missing bodies.

Well… parts of bodies.

So naturally he did the only thing he could, made a strong cup of tea and called Buffy.

For a hospital it was pretty easy place to break into, and by break in we mean walk in to, yeah, I guess they wouldn't really think of guarding a punch of sick, pregnant or dead people from inept doom. She'd waited for the police to leave, having actually taken the time to try and figure something out for once. There was one guard that had fallen asleep; I guess he figured dead people weren't really worth protecting.

Effortlessly dipping under the police line Buffy took a look around and instantly was faced the three sheet covered bodies. With a quick look she saw that the first victim was missing the top half of her right thigh, the cut was clean and precise, the ones on her chest were the same, but there was no blade markers she could find, no ridges but she knew the cut was made in one fluid motion. The others were pretty much the same; missing different pounds of flesh but all lacking a heart.

In the literal way not the mean, cold hearted Cordillera way.

It was then she noticed something, the light of her torch bouncing back at her from something under the mortician's desk. Her Slayer hears was able to pick up the faint footsteps coming for down the hall as she tried to reach for the shiny object.

Then as the door flew open… Buffy was nowhere to be seen and was already making a brisk pace away from the hospital, fingering the intricate trinket in her hand that had no place in a hospital morgue.

The gang where all waiting at Giles's, congregated around the box of donuts as Giles examined the silver necklace "so what's the word G-man, big evil afoot?"

Barely glancing to his surrogate children Giles shrugged "well I'm afraid I don't rightly know."

"But the talisman, it's all pretty and shiny and was in the morgue, it's obviously code for badness right?" Buffy perked up with jelly smeared down her chin.

Giles handed her a tissue as he spoke "I would surmise so, however the talisman itself is not of demon origin, or evil of any kind really. It's the Token of Huitzilopochtli. You see Huitzilopochtli was an Aztec god, of sun and war, it may explain the hearts being taken but the other parts… oh you see his followers would practice human sacrifice."

Willow perked up "So why is this not of the bad; because human sacrifice seems pretty bad too me."

"Because given tradition the sacrifices would have to be alive, taking hearts from the dead for such a god is… it's unheard of. Also this talisman despite its origin seems protective not sacrificial." He said while still examining the heavy chunk of metal.

Picking at the remains of her donut Buffy asked "so what steals hearts from corpses and is big on people eating gods…?"

"Louie!"

The black haired girl turned with a smile as she saw Willow strolling towards her with a little smile and a selection of coffee in hand and a tall dark haired boy assisting with the snacks they seemed to have piled up "Hey pretty lady… and strange boy."

"Louie this is Xander, Xander this is Louie. She's in mine and Buffy's psyche class."

The boy smiles brightly at the blue eyed girl "right, the noble saviour of notebooks. It's an honour."

Louie couldn't help but laugh "and honoured you should be… so what's with all the yummy treats?"

"Research party." Xander blurts out before his brain has a second to catch up; earning him a swift elbow to the gut from his best friend.

However before he has time to mumble out some lie or Willow has the chance to fix his blunder Louie backs up "Sorry guys I left the oven on, seriously only popped out to go to the video store. Well be careful; don't want a sugar caffeine overdose. Xander it was nice to meet you, Will see you later… kisses!"

All this was said with Louie backing away then vanishing with a bow of a kiss. Xander looks to Willow with a small smile "she seems nice."

"Yeah, she is."

Louie walked into her small one bedroom apartment while kicking off her boots at the door. A sigh of relief as her feet met the soft carpet and she strolled into the kitchen overlooking her dingy living room. The sweet smell coming from the oven made her mouth water as she started plating up her meal and put in Labyrinth in the VHS.

She was about to sit down until she did a one eighty and all but ran to the fridge, her hand reaching past the human leg and the neatly wrapped hearts chilling inside to grab a beer, yeah because those are normal things to have in your fridge!

No, and it's also not normal to stuff human hearts with onion and sage and enjoy it with a side of potatoes and a light beer watching David Bowie in tights, yet here she was.

Yeah… so that's happening.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Hey guys so this is a tester chapter because I do have an idea for this story, I'm not sure if I've made anyone to OOC so any help there is welcome along with constructive criticism only. If there are any spelling/Grammatical errors I'm sorry I'm dyslectic and my spell check sucks.**_

 _ **And a big thank you to those who have already reviewed and everything it means so much.**_

 _ **Please review and please no flaming.**_

 _ **Thanks, JJ Xoxo**_

The morgue case had been temporarily put on the back burner due to what they were referring to as 'the incident'. Meaning Oz, sweet, quiet, Willow crazed Oz banging some skanky she-wolf and taking off to 'find himself' and then there are these commando guys they know nothing about or what the hell their up to.

So yeah, missing parts from dead people wasn't really the main objective.

Louie saw Willow seeming to draw into herself more lately; she was quiet, in the short time shed come to know the girl that just didn't seem normal so she did what any good friend would do. She tried to make it better.

"Buffy!"

The blonde girl turned with a tight lipped smile "Hey Louie, you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm all sweetness, look I know things have been pretty crappy for Will lately so I was thinking we should do something."

Her interest perked Buffy asked with a tilt of her head "like what? We already tried the movies and ice-cream thing. We talked… it's just, Oz was her first real love you know; it's the worst one to get over."

A thin watery glaze came over Louie's sparkling blue eyes as she muttered quietly "yeah, I remember… I just, you guys have been so good to me, the first friends I made here and I hate seeing her like this. It must be so much harder for you."

"Oh yeah, believe me it sucks the big one. But she'll be alight; Willows a lot stronger than people think… she's a fighter. Thanks Louie, for thinking of her." Buffy couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt at her uneasiness to the girl before her. She wanted to help Willow, her best friend and she'd never given them a reason not to trust her, still she just couldn't bring herself to do it… to trust her.

It was just after lunch when Louie finally saw her redheaded friend for the first time in days. She was perched against a tree, sat on the grass, not reading or anything, just sitting and staring off into nowhere and nothing. Louie couldn't help the pull she felt as her feet inadvertently dragged her over the heartbroken girl "Willow?"

Blinking a few times willow snapped out of her daze to meet her friends stare "Louie hey…"

Her voice was broken and unconvincing in her chipperness. Taking a cross legged seat on the sun heated ground Louie offered her a sad smile "don't pretend to be ok, it's ok to not be ok; Also you kind of suck at the lying thing."

"Is my patheticness that obvious?" she sighed with a bite of her dry lip.

Instantly reaching out to take the other girls hand Louie frowned "hey, don't do that! Don't drag yourself down. I get that it hurts, that it feels like your drowning in all this pain and all these questions and you don't know what to do next; What the next step is, but let me tell you making yourself into a martyr isn't the answer. I may not know all the details about what happened and that's fine but this isn't your fault. You didn't do this Will, you don't deserve this."

Tears were now streaming down the redheads flushed cheeks as she sobbed "I just… I just don't understand how it all happened. We were happy you know, so happy and 'she' turns up and yeah ok he saved me from her and all but he still left… Oz left me."

She broke down in Louie's arms. It took the dark haired girl a second before she managed to wrap her arms around the heartbroken creature sobbing into her shoulder. It had been a _very_ long time since she had real physical contact with other people, besides her daily meal I mean. So yeah it took her a moment to get back into the grove of how this stuff works. But she did her best, tried to hold and comfort her friend the best she could without seeming to awkward… it didn't really work.

Sensing the awkwardness willow pulls back, wiping her eyes as she speaks "sorry, I didn't mean to do that."

"Its fine, completely fine… you're allowed to be in pain and show it, it's just… been a long time since I did the whole hug thing. Even before that it was kind of strange." Louie took to playing with a curl of her black hair and not really looking at Willow.

The little witch however seemed to understand the underline meaning of Louie's words "Yeah, my parents weren't big on the whole loving hugs and smooches either. They were more on the academic, leaving-me-alone-all-the-time-because-I'm-responsible-and-they-have-lectures-across-the-country-to-teach train. Thank god I had had Xander and Jesse otherwise I'd probably be a nun…no… Not like in a naughty, like sex way, I mean…"

Louie laughed at her friends muddling and tenderly took her hand "I get it. My parents were pretty hard on me to, I spent my whole life following orders and being the good dutiful daughter then… well I guess I wasn't really the daughter they wanted after all."

"Well their loss is our gain." Willow smiled ear to ear, momentarily forgetting her pain in finding a similarity between her and Louie.

Louie looked into her kind sweet eyes and found nothing but genuine affection there, it tugged slightly on her heart "hey how about we blow off class and go to the mall instead. My treat!"

Willows expression immodestly changed to one of worry and concern as she shook her head "Skip class? As in, not go to class? I don't know… I just…"

"Will come on, your ahead of everyone and missing one class won't kill you."

"But what if it does?"

"Willow, we are going shopping even if I have to drag your yummy little self so come on!" Louie offered her a hand and with an unsure expression the redhead actually took it.

Buffy watched the two from the stairway with a tingle running up her spine.

After the shopping spree Willow seemed a little bit more chipper, from the shopping or the copious amounts of sugar she'd all but ingested was unclear. All Louie cared about was that she seemed happier, if only for a little while, but her stomach was growling and the burger she'd demolished did little to help.

"Buffy! Hey!"

Willow smiled as the duo walking into her dorm and found the slayer stuffing Mr. Pointy into her waist band just out of sight "Will, hey… and Louie, so I was going to ask where you'd been but I guess the bags answer that question."

"Yeah Louie took me shopping, oh, how did class go? Because you know I wasn't there… I skipped I, Willow Rosenberg skipped a class! And got clothes!" she seems overly excited and Buffy could practically smell the sugar rush coming off her.

Buffy stood with her arms folded as she nodded "Very Harmony of you Will."

The redhead just squalled in a sort of joy before going to empty out her bags and show her best friend as Louie speaks; feeling the tension in the room "sorry for the lack of invitation but it was a pretty last minute thing."

"Don't mention it." she never seems to take her eyes off the dark haired girl who just clears her thought.

"Hey, Willow I'm pretty beat, I'm going to head home."

"Are you sure?" Willow seems disappointed and moves to hug her friend, Louie tries her best to do the hug thing but seems to fail miserably and just smiles as Willow looks at her "We'll work on that."

"Sounds like a plan. Laters lady's; kisses."

When the door shuts and Louie finally leave the room Buffy turns to Willow, who isn't moping for the first time in days and is actually smiling. Buffy tells herself this isn't jealousy, this is slayer spidy sense. I mean Spike was still out there somewhere after trying to bite Willow just a few days ago… so it makes sense.

Isn't it?

After the little fashion show Buffy decided to head out on petrol, she needed to let off some steam. Needed to get away from how great Louie was.

 _Louie was smart and sweet._

 _Louie was funny._

 _Louie was a good friend._

 _Louie was fan-freaking-tastic._

 _Louie was_ … walking in the cemetery alone at night.

Her hair was tied up in a high ponytail with a pale blue ribbon and an oversized bow Buffy thought was ridiculous. It meant that you could very clearly see her face and as Buffy hid behind a far off headstone she saw Louie rocking impatiently back and forth on the balls of her feet, a sigh of relief echoing though the tomes as a large grayish demon made its way closer to the waiting girl. Its spiny back arched over to no-doubt try and balance its massive size, black antlers coming from the top of it head and its face almost the perfect image of a human skull but for the fire like glow radiating from inside. What took Buffy by surprise is the fact the demon lowered itself before Louie like some sort of servant, this making the slayer inch closer to listen as they spoke "it's an honor to be…"

"Don't, just don't do that ok, stand up." Louie seemed more than uncomfortable about him kneeling at her feet but seemed to relax as he stood and finally she could look into his glowing eyes.

"Did you manage to find it?"

The demon beamed with pride as he dangled some sort of black crystal from a leather cord. Louie all but snatched it from his clawed hand and quickly tied it around her neck. The crystal glow a deep dark red for a mere second before Louie finally breathed as though a weight had been lifted from her chest "thank you Gritton, this means so much to me."

"I'm pleased to have been of serves Miss Eloise; I had it blessed with the blood of my favorite daughter… for you!" the sad little smile on her face as Louie gently caresses the creatures pale cheek makes Buffy almost just stand up and ask what the hell was going on.

Almost.

The demon shied away from the touch bashfully, if only he could blush "oh Gritton, still so loyal. What would I do without you? I got you something…"

Louie pulled a skull from her bag; if not for the black antlers it could have been human. "Grandfather!?"

This made Buffy's lip curl and Louie laugh as she nodded "I found him back in Indiana, some wannabe Satanists aberrantly bought him on eBay for fifty bucks, but I knew him instantly from the carvings. Figured you'd want him back with the clan."

Gritton cradled the skull like a precious jewel and bowed timidly at the alabaster skinned girl "my eternal thanks Miss Eloise and please if you require anything more…"

"Please you've done more than enough, and I'm happy to have helped. Tell Druka and the kids I said hi ok?" with a quick wave to Gritton Louie took her leave, her fingers dancing over the crystal merrily as she walked.

Buffy hadn't meant to follow her, really she hadn't, but somehow there she was climbing up the fire escape outside Louie's apartment building. She almost passed by her balcony completely until she saw the dark haired girl kicking off her shoes just by the front door. Buffy spied on Louie as she turned on the waiting stove, heating up what was left of her stew from the day before. Then turning on the radio and some girly rock band started echoing through the halls as she grabbed a cold beer from the fridge. Nothing seemed to be happening, Buffy was half convinced to leave and confront her about it tomorrow after a little talk with Giles. That is until Louie starts peeling off her collage of black on black and Buffy can't tear her eyes away from the mark between her shoulder blades in the center of her back, the never ending knot sat in the center and weaved out into the frame of a sort of cat head. At first glance Buffy thought it was just a tattoo but as she squinted to look closer she saw it was a scar, someone had done that to her…

Buffy had had enough as she took a final glance to see Louie in her fluffy cloud pj's grab a bowl of stew and sip at her beer before taking a seat in front of her TV, her fingers still floating back to the crystal, like she was checking of it was still there…

As Buffy walked through the almost deserted streets she almost beamed with the fact she was right, Louie wasn't so good after all and she was going to go to Giles and he was going to confirm it… then she kind of felt bad about it, after all Louie didn't seem evil, she just… Buffy didn't want her to be evil she just wanted to be right.

That's not totally bad is it?


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey all thanks for the review and all hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think.**

 **JJ xoxo**

Buffy was starting to pace a small circle into Giles carpet as he sat reading over the texts, Xander and Anya were there two also deep in research mode. The whole gang, minus one Wiccan; Buffy wanted to tell Willow what was going on but she wasn't sure if she should, after all her and Louie had gotten pretty chummy of late and what with Oz leaving, Buffy kind of felt there was no need to worry her until she had to.

"Oh I think I got it!" Xander piped seeming pretty excited with himself. Xander rushed over to Buffy with the book in hand and showed her the sketch while everyone else hovered around them "Oh, yes, that's it, with the fiery skull and the Bambi antlers. Giles?"

Taking the book Giles pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose "a Custos Demon; the Guardian of the Dammed. This is a creature of devotion; their blood is born from the fires of pure magic, causing their entire species hunted into near excision. Well… Custos… Custos… Buffy you are certain that this is the demon you saw with um, Louie?"

Abandoning the book in hand Giles stars fiddling around with the once already laid out on his desk, like he was searching for something while Buffy looked at the picture "Yep that's the guy and he gave her like a black crystal necklace, said something about it being blessed by the blood of his favorite daughter."

"May I be the first to say, Eeww!" Xander jokes from the window hatch of the kitchen.

"Ah, as I thought…"

"Giles?" Buffy asked seeing her water was picking up a completely different book.

Taking a seat at his desk Giles took to wiping his glasses "I've been reading over the text on the Talisman that you acquired from the hospital and I remember the name of this particular demon mentioned, ah yes, here we are 'from the shadows Custos watched their venerated through the serpents eye as they feasted, willing to lay down their very being for their given god.'"

"So this demon is the one taking, you know, 'parts' from the hospital?" Buffy asked with disgust in her tone

Anya was sat picking at her nails as she laughed with a roll of her eyes "No, the Custos don't eat meat, they eat precious metals. You know like gold."

The other three casts an irritated glance to the ex-vengeance demon as Giles squinted at her "you know of these creatures?"

Anya nodded mutely making Xander place both hands on his hips like a disgruntled parent "Ahn, honey, you couldn't have mentioned this before?"

Standing Anya just huffed "Please like I got a chance with Mr. Know it all over here, besides I didn't know it was a Custos demon did I, lots of demons fit that description. So until Buffy said it was them then how was I to know?"

Folding her arms in on herself Buffy groaned "So they don't eat people? But they have to have some connection to this I mean the talisman…"

"Means nothing. Custos are old, older than me even, I just happened to meet a small clan back in the twenties. And the crystal thing sounds like pretty heavy magic, Custos don't just give blood blessings to anyone." Anya said it like you would a book title, like it was the most normal thing in the world and to be fair to her it was.

"So they're not stealing the people meat, but are connected to Louie. How, is the question?"

Giles sighed heavily "I'm afraid we don't know, and I've had little to no luck with the markings you described on the young ladies back…"

They all eyed Buffy's poorly drawn sketch of the scar she saw, she felt almost a twinge of guilt; along with a hint of pride that she was right.

Damn it…

Louie was walking out of her Classic Literature class when she felt it, a pair of eyes watching her. She stood still, clutching at her books as the corridor emptied. Then out of the corner of hey eye Louie sighed "you…"

Turning to the opening to the campus garden and standing on the tips of her toes as her slender fingers gently gripped the snake hanging from the alcove she smiles as his tongue slivered in and out quietly and she petted it head "you my little friend can inform Gritton that I'm perfectly fine, and snakes on campus will probably freak out the other students, ok?"

"Louie?" the questioning voice shocked her from her one sided conversation and she looked up to find Riley and down trodden Willow walking towards her with confusion and a mild fear of the creature in her hands.

Riley's eyes widened tenfold and he couldn't seem to look away, even as he hid behind Willow who asked "what's with the snake?"

Louie's ruby lips suddenly felt exceedingly dry as she shrugged "oh, I found this little guy roaming around the gardens."

"Um, we should go were all going to be late and you know how Mrs. Walsh gets." His voice quivered lightly making the two girls smile.

Louie didn't know much of her TA except he was helpful in class and had a thing for Buffy, and now she apparently discovered a fear of snakes. Willow looked up at him with a quirked brow "Come on Riley you're not really scared of this little guy are you?"

His back stiffened, trying to regain some of his masculine ego "No just, not the biggest fan… can we go now and you please get rid of that thing?"

"Oh, fine. Run along my little friend." Louie lowered the snake into the garden and watched as he slivered back to his master with a coy smile.

Turning back to the pair Louie linked Willow's arm and asked "so, where's Buffy?"

Buffy however had decided to ditch classes that day, deciding that some B&E was more worthy of her time. She'd managed to get into Louie's apartment without breaking the door down thanks to the crappy lock in the rickety balcony.

The white painted brick walls felt like they were closing in on the already small space as Buffy riffled though the papers on the coffee table, finding nothing much beside s few magazines, receipts and a shopping list. So she took to the bedroom, every girl's sanctuary.

The room was a lot bigger than the adjoined kitchen/living room, with an unmade large four poster bed, the walls were a baby pink color and fairy lights were pinned all across the ceiling. Various black layers of clothes were strewn across the room "well, Louie, your kind of a pig."

Buffy made her way through the room, first heading to the movie star style dresser and finding a lot of books in languages she could barely even say weren't just scribbles along with a strange, aged statue of a snake beside her lamp and not a lot else. She made a beeline for the wardrobe and saw nothing but the vast array of black fabrics; she was just about to shut the door when it caught her eye.

A red box hidden just behind the clothes and as Buffy took it she sighed "please don't be a collection of ribbons."

She opened the box and her prayers seemed to be answered. Inside the box was not a single ribbon in sight, but there was a large stack of paperwork that she could actually read, thank god. On top were a few passports:

 _Lula Moor_

 _Ella King_

 _Louise Twain_

 _Luella Bronte_

Different names in each one but the same picture, all Louie… they weren't even that old, most of them still even in date. Following the passports were other papers, like obviously fake birth certificates "just who the hell are you?"

Taking the box under her arm Buffy headed back into the main living room, not noticing the light red glow of the stone statue snake's eyes. She's about to leave, really she is, until of course the large pot on the stove catches her attention.

A firm frown set in as she groaned "oh… please… don't be people."

She put the box on the coffee table for the moment before hesitantly heading over to the stove, it was obviously left over's and as Buffy lifted the lid she found…

Stew.

She could see carrots and potatoes and something she prayed was beef. Unsure of what to make of the stew she took a quick whiff "you don't smell like people stew, you actually smell kind of good. Oh god!"

She knew there was no way to actually know, so decided to check the fridge and as that little light came on and the cool air hit her Buffy felt her heart sink slightly at the sight of the, well, heats… and forearm…

"Looks like we found our body snatcher…"

Across town Louie was happily walking to the coffee shop to meet Willow and her little friend Xander, Willow was still not feeling to great since her breakup and everyone seemed to be rallying around to try and cheer her up; even if they were resorting to sugary coffee. She'd had a good day but was a little concerned with how Buffy was acting with her, should she be worried?

"Hey watch where you're going! Bloody twit." some Billy Idol wannabe grumbled at her in a British accent and covering himself in a blanket.

"Sorry…" she watched him for a moment with a light chuckle to herself _'vampires walking around during the day? Sunnydale sure was turning out to be full of surprises_ '

While trapped in her little head Louie was snatched away from the street. She almost attacked until she saw the fiery pits of her friends eyes "Gritton, what are you doing here?"

"You are in danger Miss Eloise, the slayer was in your home… she hunts you!" his deep gravelly voice was filled with dread and his bright skull like features with nothing but fear and concern.

Confusion filled Louie to the brim "what? The slayer but why? I haven't coursed any trouble… ok minus a few corpses but it's not like they needed it! Why would she target me?"

"I suppose your socializing may have raised her suspicions perhaps Miss Eloise."

"What, why would they slayer care who I'm hanging out with?" she didn't understand any of this at all until Gritton spoke again "associating yourself with her group, like the little witch, this may have been unwise."

"What witch? What…" it suddenly hit her, she'd seen books on witchcraft in Willow's dorm.

Willow whom she'd been spending a lot of time with and was also Buffy's best friend. Buffy who'd been acting really strange lately and kind of standoffish…?

"Buffy… Buffy is the freaking Slayer?" her angered reaction made Gritton back off with a respectful bow of his head.

She looks to him with a bite of her lip "what does she know?"

"Not much it would seem, only about the flesh and she seems to have your red box." Gritton can see the worry flooding into those big blue eyes and moves to place his long grey arms around her. Louie nuzzles into his hard bony chest as a small sob breaks from her lips "Grit, what am I going to do?"

His claws stroked through her thick black curls lovingly as he answers her softly "whatever it takes to survive Miss Eloise. You must do whatever it takes."

A plan formed in her head and Louie broke away from the demon with a stern expression "you're right Gritton… whatever it takes."

Buffy had just walked though Giles door not ten minutes ago and they were already knee deep in the box that Buffy had stolen from Louie's apartment.

So far Giles contacts had nothing on the girl or the identities she had created "I just don't understand why someone would need this much fake information, all these different lives she can just slip into… its sick, its twisted. I mean she comes to town starts stealing and ew _eating_ people. It's just plain gross. And morally wrong, right?"

"Um, yes quite… um Buffy…"

Suddenly the phone rings and Buffy leans back on the sofa to answer "hello Giles phone."

" _Hey Buffy."_

"Louie? How did you get this number?" she and Giles share a look as he abandons his post and come to her side.

" _Willow gave it to me, hope you don't mind… then again it's not much compared you breaking into my home and stealing from me. And I thought we were friends."_

"Yeah, well I try to limit my friends to people who don't eat other people!"

" _Please save the judgment for someone who gives a rat's ass. I know what I am and I've come to term with that. However my diet isn't really what up for discussion here is it?"_

"Oh yeah, then what is?"

" _Come on Buffy, haven't you figured it out yet."_

Sheer panic spun through Buffy's mind as she felt a terrible shiver run up her spine "Willow… no you wouldn't…"

"… _And Xander. I don't want to hurt them, really I don't, but I want that box back Buffy. You know I really thought I could make it work this time. But you just had to ruin it… please Buffy, don't make me do something we'll both regret."_

 _BBBBEEEEPPPPP_

Buffy stood in a panic as she headed to where she knew Giles kept his weapons "Buffy, Buffy talk to me."

"She took them Giles, she has Willow and Xander" she stood with a heavy looking axe in her hands with a look of determined fury.

Meanwhile across town Louie, sat on the remains of what was no doubt a bed before heading out to find Xander and Willow both shackled to metal chairs that stood out from the burned up derelict debris surrounding them.

"Where are we?" Xander asked groggily from his little bump on the head before looking around them.

Willow groaned in as she woke up as well "I think we're in the factory?"

"Yeah, I found this place when I first came to town, stayed here for a little while I got myself fixed up." Louie said as she dissented down the spiral staircase.

Her long black jacket hit the floor and fanned out to show her spiked combat boots and sparkly black tights, you could also just make out the puff of her velvet skater dress "Louie, what the hell's going on? Let us go?"

A frown fell onto Louie's ruby lips as she knelt before the pair, her ebony curls highlighting just how pale she really is "I'm sorry Will, I don't want to do this… really I don't."

Xander looked at the girl he'd just started getting to know "then why are we chained up in the very last place I ever wanted to see again."

"You see Buffy's been kind of naughty and taken something of mine. But don't worry it'll be ok… once I get my box back." She licked at her lips nervously; she knew Buffy wouldn't risk her friend's lives for a stupid box of junk but still…

"Louie… I don't understand, please why would Buffy steal from you? Why are you doing this?" the redhead's voice cracked slightly as she spoke.

Moving to stand and look down to the little witch both gasped ever so slightly as big icy blue eyes darkened to a sinister blood red "Because Willow, that what monsters do…"


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys, I'm so happy that your all enjoying the story so far and I know I really enjoy reading your reviews. Thanks to Willy Wonka for your reviews especially and just so you know no, Louie wasn't in Giles's apartment in the first chapter she was just out in the street. I did have a divide line there but for some reason it didn't appear after I uploaded the story.**

 **Anyway I hope you all enjoy and continue to review**

 **JJ xoxo**

The hours passed to slowly and Giles had somehow convinced Buffy to lower her weapons in favor of research, they knew nothing about this woman, if she was even a woman at all and decided to comb through the coveted red box.

"I don't like this, this strange woman has Xander and we know nothing!" Anya pouted miserably from her chair.

"Yes Anya we are more, or less without knowledge hence our current research. Now please do shut up unless you have anything of use to add to the situation, alright?" Giles just snapped at her with a stern expression making Anya pout even harder and mumble to herself as she went through the papers she'd been given.

After all this stranger had taken two of his surrogate children and they knew nothing about her.

"Giles… look at this." He rushed to his slayers side and stared at the book in her hands. It had been at the very bottom of the box, the leather was worn and dated and the pages tough and yellowed with age.

Inside was a picture of Louie or as the page read in fine script Eloise, and there was her picture, carefully sketched with a unique likeness. She looked almost exactly like the picture's Buffy had been so jealous of; the women from Angel's time. Beside the picture was a paragraph written in beautiful calligraphy that Buffy couldn't quiet read "I can't read the hand writing…Giles?"

Taking the book from her hands the older man straightened his glasses and read aloud " _it is difficult to remind myself that not but a month ago my life was to end. If not for her need of a servant I would be nothing more than scraps of bone at this very moment. However I live, I live to serve the creature that would rightly devour me whole and astonishingly I find myself not merely grateful but also elated. For it appears that the beast that would consume my heart has instead stolen it from me, yes, I have fallen in love with her. My Darling Eloise…may god forgive me."_

"Good lord." As he finished the text Buffy looked to him wide eyed in horror "Hearts, consume, oh god Giles she's the one that's been stealing the body parts from the morgue!"

"What? So she's going to eat Xander! I don't want Xander to be eaten!" Anya protested in almost hysterics.

Taking the book to his chair Giles shook his head; tone set in authority mode "No one is being eaten! Anya get back to checking those files and Buffy search that dreaded computer for any information you can find."

"Giles I don't need to know her life story, I need to know how to kill her!" Buffy stood cross armed, all her worry being tapped into Giles carpet with her left booted foot.

He stood to take her shoulders in his hands, squeaking comfortingly "I understand Buffy, however we know nothing about this creature, what she is, why she's here… in order to save Xander and Willow we must first know how."

He could see her lip quiver lightly and her eyes glaze over as she spoke "what if we're to late Giles? What if all this research is just wasting time and their already…?"

"No, no that isn't possible because after all she wanted a trade yes? Well if she wants that bleeding box back at all she'll have the good sense to not harm her bargaining chips" it was reasonable really and Buffy relaxed for a split second…

"Well really she only needs one of them alive, she could really have just taken the other one for a snack so…" until Anya opened her big mouth.

"Anya, do kindly **shut up**!"

Across down Willow and Xander were struggling with their binds, not sure where exactly Louie had gone. "So Wills, I'm kind of second guessing how 'nice' your friend really is."

"Sshh, I'm trying to concentrate… _solvere de vinculis necessitudines"_ Willow tugged at the rope with no luck as a light giggle echoed around the room.

In walked Louie, her long black hair and coat trailing behind her as she carried two pizza boxes under one arm and a cooler in her other hand "sorry sweetie, I put a few aint magic sigils around the property. So just try not giving yourself rope burn ok."

Louie was being sincere, really she was, but our little witch took her tone as mockery and instead snarled at the woman she thought was her friend. Louie turned her eyes to the floor before flipping open the lids of the pizza boxes; one was double pepperoni and the other was Tuna with black olives, which just so happened to be Willow's favorite.

"I figured you guys would be hungry so I ordered in, so…" she looked at the pair, wondering how they were actually going to eat the pizza "um, ok well I'm going to untie your hands, not your feet though and if either of you try anything then bye-bye pizza. OK?"

"Believe me I'm far too hungry to try anything that requires actual effort." Xander groaned along with the rumble of his stomach, he's watched the boxes since they came into the room and invaded his nostrils with their deliciousness.

Louie smiled at that and moved to untie his hands before pushing the boxes closer to them. "Will? How about you? Going to be a team player?"

Willow didn't so much as look to Louie even as she tried "Come on Willow, I even got your favorite, despite the fact its knocking me sick to even smell it! …you need to eat."

Louie moved to untie Willow's hands despite her silence only to hear her mumble something she didn't quite catch "what?"

Willow's head turned and the sweet, sheepish girl Louie had come to know vanished in the wake of the rage staring down on her "Why did you have to pretend to be my friend? Just to get to Buffy? Seriously? What, you couldn't have just kidnapped us without the fakeness and the lies, oh no because where's the fun in that!"

A sharp kick hit Louie's heart at the redhead's words so she looked her dead in the eyes with as much honesty as she could muster "you think I wanted this? I never had any plan Will, I just… I was just trying to live. Then Buffy broke into my apartment and stole my stuff and now I have a god dammed slayer after me… I was your friend Willow, I still am. I'm not going to hurt you; I never was I just… I need that box back."

Willow stared at her filled with uncertainty as Xander spoke with a half slice of Pizza in his mouth "What's in the Box?!"

He laughed but at the others blank stares made him just groan as he swallowed the rest of his Pizza "oh come on you set me up for that line… and by that I mean please don't eat me, or take away the pizza."

"Eat you? Xander what are you talking about?" Willow asked a little confused, why would he assume Louie would eat him?

Louie however stood with her back straightened as the boy answered to his best friend "oh, well Buffy saw her with this like skull fire demon and we found out it has something to do with the amulet thing she found so yeah… shiny amulet, big scary demon, missing body parts…"

"And what nobody thought to tell me any of this?" Willow almost pouted in total annoyance at being left out; it wasn't something she was used to.

"Well, Buffy figured what with you getting all chummy to Louie and all it might be best to hold out until we actually knew anything. You know?" Xander hadn't wanted to not tell Willow in the first place, he wasn't good at the whole secret keeping thing when it came to her but it made sense at the time.

Louie hopped onto the chard table and cracked open the cooler "well since my little secret's out I guess there's no need to be descent." She pulled out thinly sliced raw, still bloody; meat that made the two humans in the room wince slightly, already guessing what said meat actually was.

Louie reached over for a slice of pepperoni and carefully placed a bloodied slice of heart on it before taking a long bite that made her roll her groan in pleasure.

"By god that's disgusting. Why do I want to try it?" Xander questioned more to himself than anyone else.

Willow stared wide eyed at her friend, never taking her gaze off the black haired girl as she asked "um, Louie, what are you… you know exactly?"

Swallowing the food in her mouth Louie's tongue darted out to capture a stray piece of source or blood from the corner of her lips; Willow couldn't tell which "my kind have had lots of names, Pontianak, Jikininki, at one time during the Aztec period some mortal's even coincided us god's; they used to come from miles and offered themselves as sacrifices and everything… well according to the stories anyway. In the last century or so people have started calling us, um, what was…right, Wendigo's. That's it. So I guess you could take your pick."

"I kind of like that last one; ' _Wendigo_ '… easy to pronounce and actually kind of catchy but with a creepy horror movie vibe. Black and white era obviously." Xander said, using a slice of pizza as a pointing stick.

Louie laughed at him with a toothy grin as Willow carried on examining the cannibal "I have to ask, why you don't eat, you know, _living_ people."

"Willow, come on, if the nice lady doesn't want kill and devour us, why push?" Xander chuckled with fear.

The witch watched as Louie swallowed the lump in her throat and stared hard at the floor "it's a long story… I just… my clan, they do, I did… I have to eat, if I don't then I can't control myself, I get all rabid, it gets pretty nasty so I just… dead people, fresh but dead… I have to eat." Louie turned her back of the pair not wanting them to see the pain and guilt that screamed from every inch of her porcelain face.

Guilt washed over Willow like a tidal wave "Louie, hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry, really. I just have this whole foot in mouth thing that I…"

"I didn't know." Louie's whisper echoed through the remains of the factory "from the moment we're born were taught that humans, your food… that it, just animals; and that love is a trick you created to give your lives some sense of meaning."

She turned to them both as her eyes turned glassy and her ruby lip twitched "I didn't know it was real, I didn't know what it was it just… it just happened."

Willow and Xander both looked to the teary eyed girl, as the boy spoke softly "You fell in love..."

Back at Giles's house the ex-watcher was continuing through the journal. He could see the anxiety building hard in his slayer, her need to fight and save was almost too strong, Anya had taken to comfort eating as she worked and spilling half a tub of peanut butter on his dammed couch. Giles found lots of sketches of Louie, poems for her, detailed descriptions of picnics and what not but little else, except that this poor boy was obviously and most unfortunately besotted with some sort of monster…that is until he found a page almost scattered with blood that read; _The Witiko's may devour my heart, but they shall never know it's true worth._

"Witiko…my god. Buffy!"

The blonde girl immediately raced over to his side, all too eager for some information on what the hell she had to do. "What is it?"

"She's a Witiko!"

Buffy just looked at him with a puzzled expression "A witty-what-now?"

"A Witiko, loosely translated as 'Wendigo', these creature are millennia's old, their names ever changing however we did manage to gather some information on them during the early twenties." Giles abandoned the journal to instead race around through the untouched books on his shelf before snatching out a book bound in faded red fabric; Velvet maybe?

"Yes, here. The Wendigo is a creature of furious hunger, it is believed that during the old days before light and darkness a human tribe feasted on the flesh of a weakened demon, that with its last breath cursed its own flesh and in turn cursing the humans that would consume him. They would themselves be driven to eat the flesh of their own kin and forever be burdened with a demon of their own creation." He looked at the two woman and Buffy looked aggravated as well as uninterested by the little tale and opened her mouth to speak, but didn't get the chance.

"Oh wait I know these guys, their kind of snobby, and not big on the whole concept of love. I mean, if a child of the clan is born weak or with any kind of defect they just throw it into a fire for pete's sake. That's cold even from a full demon's stand point." Anya was kind of impressed that she actually knew what was going on; Buffy didn't seem too pleased that she knew more than her on the subject though.

"I don't care; I don't care what they do or where they came from. How do I kill it?" Buffy's voice had reached that tone that meant she was done waiting, done being patient.

"Um, yes, well from what I know it would be fire, not simply setting them on fire however but to burn the heart out of them… as it were." Giles was cleaning his glasses.

"And how do I find her?"

"Oh a sniffer dog!" Anya piped in with a strange glee and much to Giles annoyance.

Buffy's eyes shifted as she nodded to herself "that's, not actually a bad idea."

Willow and Xander were both untied now, Louie hadn't seen much point in leaving them to get rope burn, if they tried to run she was faster, if they tried to hurt her she was stronger… but she doubted that they would.

No instead of being bound and gagged like good hostages they were instead sat on the long burned metal table in a little triangle around the remaining pizza boxes "ok but I still don't get how it's so bad, I mean, so you fell in love with a human, were not that bad besides to whole mortality thing."

Louie shook her head at Xander's question "Love is weakness, a con the mind plays on us to blur our decisions and plant doubt, that's what my mother used to say. I guess me falling in love was one thing but with a human, that was like you falling in love with a pound of bacon."

"Hey I did that, because hello, bacon!" Xander smiled, trying to brighten the girl's mood.

"So what, your family just threw you out?" Willow almost winced at each word that came out of her mouth.

Louie shook her head slowly "no, no… they, Vincent, my brother, saw Thomas and I one night, god he was so angry, the way he looked at me… anyway he ran straight to our parents. They went completely berserk, the way they acted you'd think I'd sold out the entire clan to the slayer or something. And Thomas… they um…"

The two childhood friends shared a knowing stare before Willow reached over to take Louie's hand with a light squeeze "Hey, it's ok, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want, we don't mind, really!"

"Yeah we're just being all nosy and whatnot. It's a thing we do, like investigators but without the exchange of money or the actual investigating part."

A ghost of a smile played on Louie's lips at their words "you guys are all sweetness you know that? You're good people and I'm… really not."

"What? No you're great, best kidnapper we've ever had right Wills?"

"Yeah, I mean, oh, look pizza! Never had that while being held hostage before; very of the good!"

They were hoping to bring a smile to her face but Louie just shook her head in disagreement "now I bring you Pizza, eighty years ago I'd have made you watch as I ate your livers… I've done so many horrible things, things that would make you vomit I swear. All the people I killed, villages, town's… I liked it. No, I reveled in it… I'm a monster."

"Now there's something we can agree on…" the voice came from behind them. The three of them turned to see Buffy sternly holding a vampire by his collar, and was that Louie's shirt in her hand?

Buffy dusted the vampire without blinking an eye as Giles and Anya catch up to her with panted breath and swards in hand "Buffy, Do you have my box?"

"No, but I got something else for yah." Buffy raised a small bronze sward that stank of lighter fluid and Buffy almost seamlessly seemed to light with a plastic gas station lighter.

"Buffy…" Willow moves to try and stop this, only for Louie to hold up her hand to silence the girl "It's ok Will."

"You don't get to talk to her!" Buffy growled before lunging at the Wendigo, Louie moved fast, the burning sward having sliced into her upper shoulder and almost cutting the sleeve of her coat clean off.

Looking from the wound and back to the slayer Louie smirked "nice two-step little girl, let's see what other dance moves you have."

Again Buffy swung the sward but as Louie kicked her in the ribs she lost her grip just enough for Louie to smack the sward from her hands.

The black haired flesh eater reached for the weapon that could kill her only to be kicked clean through the already unsteady wall behind her "how's about a little tango?"

As Buffy picked up the still flaming sward Giles and Anya rushed to the two 'hostages'. "Xander! I thought you were all eaten and mid-digestion by now."

"Thank goodness you're both alright, now let's get out of here and…"

"No, we have to stop Buffy!" Willow declared seeming very distressed.

Giles looked at her in confusion as Xander agreed "yeah, Louie's not some big bad evil, despite the whole eating people and kidnapping thing."

"I'm afraid I don't understand, you are aware that this woman threatened your lives, correct?"

"She wasn't going to hurt us, she just wanted her stuff back and hello, big scary slayer… ok tiny scary slayer but still. She didn't know what else to do." Willow argued for her friend's life.

"I mean for god's sake man the woman brought us pizza!" Xander declared and at this Anya shrugged "well they do seem perfectly intact and well fed. Not your typical Demon kidnapping, I was expecting at least one of you to be dead or eaten or at the very least a few broken bones."

They all shared a similar expression before looking to the Louie shaped hole in the wall and Giles sighing "oh, very well then."

"You made a big mistake, coming here, but your biggest mistake was messing with my friends." Buffy said as she punched Louieback into some rubble.

When the black haired girl stood to face the slayer again the demon side of her had reached the surface and Buffy took in the sight, somehow her skin seemed even paler, with a marble effect as deep red veins pulsed out violently and her ear's pointed up like a feline, every tooth in her head turning to razor like fangs while her actual fangs grew longer like daggers and her big doe blue eyes were drown out by a sea of crimson red and her beautifully manicured nails extended into thick black talons "yeah, well that's life Buffy, always learning right?"

"Yeah, like me learning how to kill you." Buffy again struck Louie with the sward, but in her demon form Louie seemed much faster and leapt away from the blade as quickly as it was struck.

The sward quivered slightly from cutting a large already half broken beam in two and getting stuck in the wall behind it. Just as Buffy reached to pull it out she was kicked to her knees as Louie pulled her away from the sward with her talons buried in Buffy's blonde locks and the Wendigo screamed "don't make me do this!"

Buffy reached back for the clawed hand in her hair and twisted at Louie's wrist until the girl squealed in pain, Buffy of course taking full advantage of that by spinning around to punch Louie several times in the face before long black claws scratched out to slice at the Slayers stomach. She kicked Buffy away, aiming for the fresh wound "I don't want to hurt you Buffy!"

"Pft, oh please, you're a monster! Hurting is all your good for, not my fault your too scared to take me." Buffy huffed in a mixture of anger and annoyance, she could tell that Louie wasn't really fighting back, could practically feel the restraint coming off of her. Buffy just didn't understand.

Still that didn't mean she wasn't going to finish the job, she reached back over for the surprisingly still burning sward and walked back to Louie with a calm rage. This _thing_ had wormed its way into her life, had hung out with her friends, and had endangered her friends.

So why is that when she looked at the girl, sat bloodied with a stray tear or two falling down her cheeks and her demon appearance blurred away and left her looking all to human, did she feel something for her… why.

She was stood at Louie's feet, waiting for her to strike her again but the blow never came, instead Louie moved to kneel with her arms stretched wide as her teary blue eyes spoke louder than her voice "Your right… I'm a monster, so do it, kill me… what are you waiting for Buffy fucking end me! end it all."

The blonde toyed with her grip on the sward, she watched her for a second before raising her weapon and…

"No don't!" Willow's voice echoed though the abandoned factory like a banshees scream.

Both girls turned to see four people stood in defense of this creature and Buffy's brow creased in confusion "what? Willow she kidnapped you, she was going to kill you and Xander and god knows what else she's done since she got here!"

"No Buffy, she was just scared, that's all. Yeah ok so she broke into the morgue and yes, you know, she's eating humans, but not living ones… I get that's not good but still it's better than the alternative." Willow had somehow gotten a lot closer during her speech while Xander popped his head round for a second "Come on Buff, look at her… she's just a girl, I mean yeah a half demon flesh eating girl but… you know what I mean."

"You're wrong…" they turned to Louie, tears still streaming down her milky cheeks "I'm a monster, I, I've killed and ate thousands of people and I, I loved it… every second so, so you have to, you have to do this!"

Louie was now grabbing at Buffy's shirt, pleading for death though "You're the Slayer for god's sake and I'm a disgusting _monster_ so you… you have to kill me… please… please Buffy, I can't take it anymore, I'm so tired and alone and just… please, it hurts, it hurts all the time and I just can't… I can't."

Buffy watched Louie, her big blue eyes and she literally begged for death. her sward lowed slowly and without her permission as Willow fell to her knees to cradle the demon as she sobbed, stroking her hair "it's ok, it's going to be ok."

"No, I'm a fucking monster… oh god I'm so sorry, all those people, Thomas… I just… I can't stop it, please I just want it to stop, make it stop. _I'm Sorry_!" the last part Louie screamed through snotty tears. Everyone staring at the pair crouched together on the floor as Louie clung to the witch as a broken child would its mother.

Buffy took in the scene, glancing at the fire lit sward before throwing it aside and moving to help Louie to her feet. Green eyed locked on baby blue for a second as Buffy moved to wipe the tears from the girls face "I think we should talk…"

Louie only nodded mutely and moved to head out of the decrepit building, the others following behind with Buffy sharing a long look of understanding with Willow and Xander.

I guess they really did need to talk.

When they got back to Giles's apartment they sat for a long time in silence, until Louie finally huffed out a breath of truth, recapping the story she'd told to Xander and Willow not but a few hours ago…

"…so what happened after you know, your family murdered your boyfriend?" Anya asked with the same amount of tact as a blow horn.

"Gritton, my friend, I saved his life back in 1792 so he's been kind of looking after me ever since, he got me out and I've been running ever since." The haunted look in Louie's eyes made the everyone in the room feel for her, she didn't ask to be born a flesh hungry demon; she just was and is that her fault, just being what she was…

"Well, it would seem that the situation has resolved itself. However I feel it could have been avoided if only for some shared honesty. Nevertheless all's well that ends well I suppose." Giles said truthfully while cleaning his glasses.

Buffy stood before Louie, rocking on her heels as Louie asked with hushed tones "so… I guess now that that's all over with could we maybe, you know, start over?"

A small smile crept onto the blondes face "I'd like that…"

They shared an understanding smile before Louie stuck out her hand "hey, I'm Eloise, but you can call me Louie. I'm a Wendigo, that's a half demon half human thing, I'm 356 years old, need a regular diet of human flesh and am allergic to fish, also I hate the smell of jasmine and lavender."

Buffy took her hand "Hey Louie, I'm Buffy, the Slayer, I'm 18, have actually died once, I love coffee and clothes and hate French food. Like seriously ew!"

They shared a small laugh as Louie nodded "well its nice to meet you."

The pair turned to hear the laughing and saw Xander holding something in a frame while Willow and Anya stood either side of him. Willow shrugged, not wanting to be mean "it's not that bad…"

Xander turned the frame around and smiled cheekily at Louie "hey why do you have this and why is it framed? Because no offence I wrote better stuff on the back of hand in math! Is that why it was hidden away in that box, did someone have an Edgar Allan Poe phase and is now deeply ashamed? Because I'd get that."

Louie walked up and snatched the old worn framed paper from him playfully "it was a gift, besides I like it."

Willow just nodded in understanding, not really caring for the piece but still appreciating Louie's opinion.

"I never understood poetry why not just say what it is you have to say and be done with it?" Anya grumbled and walked off, growing uninterested in the subject. As Louie stared at the page with fond memory, the words read silently in her head:

' **Love, is this but a notion created to burden our hearts with the thoughts of another or the eternal gift passed down from our mother. Love is neither pain nor plight, love is everything bathed in light. The only truth we have in this life is that to love is to end all strife.**

 **William Pratt**

 **December** **12** **th** **1876'**

Abandoning the poem in her not-so-secret red box Louie turns to the group, the people she hoped to call friends "Hey who wants takeout? I'm starving!"


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys so this is a long chapter and will also be Spike and Louie's first meeting, this takes place during Pangs season 4 episode 8. I am going to be mostly sticking to the main Buffy plot but with my own twists obviously. I hope you all enjoy and please, please let me know what you think.**

 **JJ Xoxo**

It had been just over a fortnight since the whole kidnapping-near-murder/assisted-suicide thing and Louie was actually feeling pretty good about everyone knowing the truth, it let out some of the stress and let her breathe a little better. Plus the not having to hide the whole eating people thing was kind of a good thing and not to mention having someone watch the door while she snuck into the morgue for her 'groceries' took a load off.

Yeah, things had been pretty good lately so the ebony haired girl had a faint smile as she walked through the campus halls sipping at her strawberry shake while her other hand helped tuck a box of donuts under arm. She still had a yellowish bruise lining her jaw from where Buffy had repeatedly punched her, but she decided the right outfit could distract anyone and decided on a black and deep red horizontal striped shirt with sleeves that were stretched over her knuckles thanks to the pulling from her black chipped fingernails, she also ware a pleated black thigh high skirt, her short creamy legs covered by a pair of torn and ripped tights and trademark boots with a silver spiked choker around her neck accompanying the black crystal she never took off. And lastly of course she had a bright red bow at the end of her long braid.

She walked up to the room she knew as Buffy and Willow's and knocked lightly on the open door using her milkshake cup. Willow moved from her bed, where her laundry was sat and smiled playfully "Who is it?"

"A flesh hungry, century's old, creature with donuts and great hair." Louie was lent on their doorframe. She still had a yellowish bruise lining her jaw from where Buffy had repeatedly punched her, but she decided the right outfit could distract anyone and decided on a black and deep red horizontal striped shirt with sleeves that were stretched over her knuckles thanks to the pulling from her black chipped fingernails, she also ware a pleated black thigh high skirt, her short creamy legs covered by a pair of torn and ripped tights and trademark boots with a silver spiked choker around her neck accompanying the black crystal she never took off. And lastly of course she had a bright red bow at the end of her long braid.

Handing Willow the box Louie strolled into their room with a smile before jumping onto the end of Willow's bed "How's Xander? I called his house after I heard what happened but some drunk guy picked up and asked me what I was wearing so I hung up."

Buffy was eyes the box of donuts as she spoke "He's ok, barely even a scratch. Hey why weren't you there? You knew about it right?"

"Yeah, But I had plans, like sleep…"

Willow put the box down to grab her laundry and put in the hamper, eyes Louie as she went "Pfft, Sleep, you think I didn't see you with the whole alcohol, dancing and the leaving with strange boy last night?"

"Hey, I didn't see this, was he cute? Are you seeing him again? Do we need to have the talk?" Buffy joked as she slowly crept over to grab the box of donuts.

"He was very cute, dumb as a stack of rocks but he got the job done, barely. And no we won't be seeing him again, god it took me half the morning to get him out of my apartment!" it also took her a good amount of time to convince him he didn't need to make her breakfast and to keep him out of fridge that just so happened to be filled with chocolate, beer, oh yeah and human hearts!

Willow shrugged with a twitch of her lip "I don't get the whole casual thing, seems pretty pointless. Also kind of dangerous, I mean you have no idea who they are, if their crazy, if their sanitary, if their…"

"A creature of the night; that feasts on the hearts of men. Yeah Will I know, but sometimes a girl just needs some contact you know? Besides I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself." Willow blushed a little at her before turning to shut the door and quickly changing the subject "Man, its crazy out there."

Buffy and Louie shared a small knowing smile before the blonde nods "Mm-hmm. Post-midterm frenzy, and the holiday; everyone's going home."

"It looks like a lot of lucky moms are gonna be getting brimming baskets of dirty laundry."

"It's so not fair. I mean, they all get a family holiday just because they can go home to their families." As Willow and Buffy spoke, Buffy with a bit of jelly on her chin from her donut, Louie stared at her fingers, zoning out of the room and into her own mind. It had been so long since she saw her own family, she never had much family tradition stuff growing up, apart from the annual feast where all the clans gathered to celebrate and brag about their best kills of the year. Did that count?

"Hmm, it's a turvy-topsy world."

Buffy looked at the sunken expression on Louie's face, wondered if she'd ever even had a thanksgiving. The slayer doubted it and somehow that just didn't seem right, everyone should have that. She deserved that, I mean she saved the world a lot so why wasn't she aloud to have some turkey and be thankful for not being on the other end of her stake "You know what? I should have my own thanksgiving. I can cook the meal, just like my mom does, have all you guys over. It'll be great."

"Buffy, earlier you agreed with me about Thanksgiving. It's a sham. It's all about death." Willow looked at Buffy with her grumpy disappointment face, while Louie's head almost flew up at attention. Did she just get invited to a thanks giving?

"It is a sham, but it's a sham with yams. It's a yam sham." Buffy tried to signal Willow with her eyes that this wasn't about politics or right and wrong. Also Buffy really wanted a thanksgiving damn it!

"You're not gonna jokey-rhyme your way out of this one." Willow kept pushing, Louie's expression fell back again believing Buffy might actually drop it and she'd spend yet another human holiday alone.

"I know... But I want it. It's like Professor Walsh was saying about sense memory. I smell a roasting turkey, and I'm 8 years old. I liked having that to look forward to. Everything's different now."

Biting her lip and slightly smudging her lipstick Louie looked between her friends and asked in all seriousness "What do you do at thanksgiving? I mean I know you're meant to eat your own weight in food but other than that I mean?"

Buffy's eyes widened to the size of souses, I mean yeah she suspected but still …"You can't be serious? What do you do every year?"

"Watch Oprah reruns, order Chinese, extra dumplings." The black haired girl shrugged and Buffy shot Willow a look they both shared signalling how deeply depressing that is.

"Well, I suppose there could be slight yams." Willow broke, not able to handle the image of Louie all alone on the holidays.

"I mean, we could definitely use a little comfort food. I bet Giles doesn't have any plans. And Xander always tries to avoid all of his family gatherings." Buffy took a seat between her friends with a victorious smile and an extra bounce in her step.

Willows face lit up like a menorah "Ooh. We could not invite Anya."

"Good because I don't think she likes me, I mean the guy brought us corndogs and I thank him and she goes nuts!" Louie sighed in remembrance of kissing the boy on the cheek in gratitude and the hate glare and screeching that came from the ex-vengeance demon.

Both girls smiled slightly at the memory before Buffy sighed "I don't know. She and Xander seem pretty tight lately. Look, pilgrims aside, isn't that the whole point of thanksgiving- Everybody has a place to go?"

"Sounds nice." Louie spoke absentmindedly, staring off.

She noticed the sympathetic looks before jumping up and slapping on her toothy smirk "so thanksgiving, sweetness… someone still needs to tell me what I'm meant to do with that."

When Buffy got the call about the Prosser the next day Louie ditched class to head over to the morgue and check on the body but also to pick up a little something for her dinner. However ever since last night the Wendigo couldn't shake the feeling of a pair of eyes near them, watching them, the faint smell of copper, mint and longing lingering around somewhere …mostly around Buffy.

It sent a shiver down her spine.

So like the good friend she was Louie decided that she should watch Buffy, not the creepy stalker way, more of the protective way. After all she'd only just made some actual friends; she didn't want them getting killed off or anything. That's a good thing, right? Right!

So that night Louie lingered outside of Buffy's dorm, when she got a call from Giles about some priest and took off the wendigo was hot on her heals, but she could smell it again, had been able to ever since she got to campus and all but growled at the unfamiliar scent.

Just as Buffy stepped foot inside the church Louie felt something nearing her back and turned to tackle the stranger to the ground, pinning him to the ground only for him to flip her onto her back. Her claws retracted instantly at the threat and turned to wrap her hand around his thick neck only for his to have the same idea and at the same time they gasped into the air "I won't let you hurt her…"

A mutual look of confusion came, but neither released her hold as again they mimicked each other "Wait, what?"

Realizing this was getting them nowhere fast Angel groaned "let's just… talk… ok?"

Louie nodded as much as she could with his meat hook wrapped around her throat "1…2…3"

She gasped for air, her thick black claws still out and ready to attack as she stroked at her poor throat "what do you want with Buffy?"

"I'm trying to help her… I think she's in danger, for all I know you are the danger!" he glared at her with dark eyes full of accusation.

Immediately offended Louie pointed a talon at him with a stern glare of her own "hey, Buffy is my friend. Then last night I pick up your creepy ass scent on her trail and you know what, maybe you're the danger here, bucko!"

Realizing his mistake Angel sighs in defeat with his hands in the air "look relax ok, I'm not here to hurt her, I swear. I'm Angel, she may have mentioned me."

Crossing her arms Louie looked over the vampire with a shake of her head "nope, never heard of you."

Hurt and shock cross over his brooding face "what? Are you sure? Angel, first love, vampire with a soul, helped save the world a couple of times?... Anything?"

Louie just shuck her head, she didn't know the guy and no one had ever mentioned him before but by the hurt look in his eyes she could see he was being sincere and with heavy sigh introduced herself "Louie, me, my name. I'm Louie."

"Nice to meet you… So, really nothing?"

The next day after Buffy had called around to let everyone know their chores, and what had happened with the priest. Buffy had been a little surprised when Louie had been waiting for her outside her dorm, but was more than happy that the Wendigo was willing to help and didn't seem to hung-over. In truth Louie was actually a little too busy last night to drink, well she finished the quarter bottle of scotch she'd had left but that barely touched the sides, no, after she got the ok on this Angel guy from Giles Louie hadn't been able to get much sleep after knowing about this apparent threat.

Louie didn't know what she was meant to do, in her long life she hadn't had many friends, yeah back in her glory days she had been revered and beloved but that was then, another life, she gave up all that when she fell in love with a human, with Thomas… she wasn't sure what the proper procedure for this kind of thing was but Giles asked her to keep it all low key so that's what she was going to do. After all he was the father of the group she was trying to squeeze into.

Seemed only right to take his lead.

Even of that meant peeling potato's "It's clear we're dealing with a spirit of some kind. It's very common for Indian spirits to change to animal form."

"It's plenty uncommon for me to freeze up during a fight. I mean, I had the guy, I was ready for the take-down, and I stopped. And it's Native American." Buffy was pretty upset that she let the guy go, but she was filled with all this guilt about what happened to his people. Having a soul sometimes sucks.

"Sorry?"

"We don't say 'Indian.'"

"Oh, right. Yes, yes. Um, always behind on the terms. Still trying not to refer to you lot as 'bloody colonials.'"

"And the thing is, I like my evil like I like my men- evil. You know, 'straight up, black hat, tied to the train tracks, soon my electro-ray will destroy metropolis' bad. Not all mixed up with guilt and the destruction of an indigenous culture." The pout on her lips made Louie laugh lightly, sometimes she thought Buffy was too cute to be the slayer.

"Come on Buffy every girl likes a bad boy, but this guy, so his people got slaughtered horribly, big whoop, not even on the top ten of the things I've seen and done. Just get it over with, it'll be easier in the long run" Buffy's internal guilt confused Louie, sometimes Louie wasn't very good with the whole feelings thing, obviously she was riddled with guilt about the things she'd done… but sometimes her upbringing would kick in that basically taught them that empathy was a phase.

"Louie is correct on this matter Buffy. This spirit warrior- Hus, you called him- Has killed innocent people." Giles was right, obviously and you could tell by the tone of his voice that he was a little concerned about her lack of wanting to end this spirit.

However Buffy didn't want to talk about, she wanted to focus on her nice, normal thanksgiving "Ok. You know what? We need to boil those and put them through the ricer."

"I don't think I have a ricer."

"You don't have a ricer? What do you mean? How could someone not have a ricer?"

"Well, do you have one at home?"

"I don't know. What's a ricer?"

"it's like a metal thing with holes in, where you push softened food through to make to food smaller, like rice sized." Louie had just been carrying on peeling while they had their little debate but looked over her shoulder to find their shocked expression and rolled her eyes with a mild shrug "what? I took a culinary cause back in 67'."

Turning back to Buffy Giles simply sighed "We'll mash them with forks, much like the pilgrims must have. Did you catch the part about the innocent people?"

"Yes. Ok? And I do want to stop him. I'd just like to find a non-slayee way to do it." Buffy moved to out of the kitchen to answer the knock of the door as Giles shook his head at his slayer

As Willow walked in with a small mountain of books in her hand Giles turned back to Louie and whispered "it would seem Buffy's judgment is flawed due to the guilt of what happened to these people, however if this 'vision' Angel warned us of is to indeed real then we need to snap her out of it."

Louie glanced over at her two friends, Buffy seeming appalled by the boxes in her hand while Willow shared that expression, but that was more to do with what she'd been reading than frozen veg. she looked back at Giles with a nod "she's the slayer, she'll do what's right. It's her job, and if not then I can always see if it's possible to eat this guy's heart! Everything gets dead without a heart."

Giles quirked a brow in mild agreement "Well I hope your right."

Buffy grumbled at the box's "These are frozen."

"What's all that?" Giles turned to ask Willow who seemed kind of crabby about the whole thing.

"Atrocities. I got the full poop on the Chumash Indians and our fabulous buried mission." Glancing to the books Louie wondered exactly how long Willow had to be up to have read through all that stuff.

"You said you were going to get fresh ones." Buffy however seemed to be clinging to the whole thanksgiving thing pretty tight.

"Atrocities?" Willow asked with a bemused expression.

"Peas. They come in little pods. You were going to shell them."

"I didn't have time. I was busy reading about the Chumash war." Obviously Willow had her priorities in order.

Giles turned back to the girls with a crease in his brow "The Chumash were peaceful."

"Oh, they were peaceful, all right. They were fluffy indigenous kittens, till we came along." Louie untied her apron and decoded she needed something to drink, after spending the last few hours in the older man's cramped kitchen she knew there was no beer in the fridge, a few bottles of wine sure, but Louie never favoured wine and instead reached for the bottle of jack tucked out of sight behind the breadbin.

Meanwhile Buffy continued her pouting "They're gonna be mushy."

"They won't be mushy." Willow reassured

"I like mushy peas." A smile came to Giles face, almost as though he was recalling a fond memory the mushy peas may be linked to, or maybe he just really liked mushy peas.

This comment seemed to earn him a glare from the blonde "You're the reason we had to have pilgrims in the first place. So what happened to the Chumash?"

"How about imprisonment, forced labour, herded like animals into a mission full of bad European diseases." Willow was again rambling on about all the bad stuff these people had to go through, it made Louie almost roll her eyes as she sipped at her whisky and moved to take a seat on Giles desk.

"Boy. Cultural partnership centre really didn't stress any of that stuff." Buffy's face fell at the information

With a solemn shake of her head Willow joined the pouting party "Not even a diorama. And it gets better. The few Chumash who tried to rebel were hanged. And when a group was accused of stealing cattle, they were killed- Men, women, and children; and for proof to bring back to their accusers... "

"They cut off their ears?" Giles groaned.

A light laugh left Louie's lips and the others turned at her in horror. She looked from each one of their faces "sorry, it's just… my mother once told me this story about how she and father devoured an eight foot, Indian warrior under a meteor shower the first night they came to the new world."

"Did you just try to make murder, racism and cannibalism into a love story?" Willow asked with rise of her brow.

With her glass in hand the black haired girl sighed "sounded pretty romantic when I was little…"

A moment of silence before Buffy spoke absentmindedly "So Hus wasn't kidding about the rightful vengeance routine."

"He's recreating all the wrongs done to his people. And it's up to us to stop him."

Louie watched as they started arguing and rolled her eyes "so not getting into this!" and headed over to the sofa with her drink in hand.

"I have to baste." Buffy blurted out before herself rushing off to avoid the moral dilemma.

Louie sits still and tries to zone everyone out, she can hear their hearts beating and two more approaching; could hear the rush of the blood pumping around them and resisted the urge to lick her lips. Thank god she ate her 'required' meal before leaving the house.

The knock of the door seemed to end the argument for now, instead giving them what seemed to be a dying Xander; well at least he looked that way, all pale and clammy and gross "Happy thanksgiving."

Anya who was holding him up and with Giles's help they managed to get him to the sofa, Giles covered him with a blanket while Willow rushed to get a wet flannel and Buffy grabbed and fluffed a pillow for him, Louie just grabbed her drink and took a seat on the chair, not totally sure what to do with herself.

So she offered to head out and get the dinner rolls, Buffy insisted she get them from the bakery and not the store so grabbing her heart shaped sunglasses Louie took off. She'd never been much good when it came to sick people, in her whole existence she'd looked after exactly one sick person and she was one hundred percent sure she'd made it worse. To be honest she was kind of freaked out about it, give her an angry demon or hell even her pissed off parents any day over a sick person. At least in those situations she knew what she was actually dealing with.

After all, the whole comforting thing wasn't exactly her wheelhouse after all.

Unfortunately the bakers weren't that far so she made it back to Giles apartment in about ten minutes or so. When she opened the door all she heard was Xander's very unhappy voice "to slaying him? The representative from syphilis votes yea."

Willow chimed in then "It's not that simple."

"Who has Syphilis?" Louie asked, very confused as she put down the bread rolls.

"Xander, along with other various diseases. A little gift from the Chumash vengeance spirit." Anya answered before apparently her boyfriend said the wrong thing and then everyone was fighting again.

That is until Buffy bolts up and shouts "This is no good! It needs more condensed milk." fleeing into the kitchen with Giles hot on her heels.

Louie moves to try and just not get in the way, what with everyone arguing and that. Is this normal for a thanksgiving?

There's a knock at the door. Buffy race's to answer it, eager to get away from her conversation with Giles, for a second they see nothing in the archway of the door then in a flash some Blonde, vampire cowering below a blanket grabs Buffy's arm with a pleading tone "Help me."

Buffy instinctively shoves him back and he goes tumbling into the sunlight before covering himself with the torn blanket again "Ohh! What part of help me do you not understand?"

"The part where I help you." Buffy stood there like it was nothing and Louie couldn't help but near them in curiosity.

"Come on, I'm parboiling out here." Again Spike pleaded with his sworn enemy.

Giles seemed to magic up a stake from nowhere before handing it to Buffy "Want me to help make it quicker?"

"Invite me in."

"No." Buffy spoke as though it was the stupidest request she'd ever heard.

"It's fairly unlikely." And apparently Giles agreed.

Spike saw a flash of red hair past the unfamiliar grunge style girl "Oh, damn it! Look, I'm safe. I can't bite anyone. Willow, tell' em what I did."

"You said you were gonna kill me, then Buffy." Willow stood, reciting his words back to him and the rest of the room.

Out of nowhere a growl echoed from deep in Louie's throat, her pearly whites snarling at the vampire.

Spike eyed the black haired girl for a second before groaning "Yes, bad, but let's skip that part and get to the part where I couldn't bite you."

"It's true. He had trouble performing." Everyone looked to Willow and Louie felt a relived weight lift at the news her friends had avoided at least some danger.

"Yeah, well, it looks like they've done me for good. Um..."

"What are you saying?" Buffy snarled.

With a roll of his eyes Spike laid it out like they were all five years old "I'm saying that Spike had a little trip to the vet and now he doesn't chase the other puppies anymore. I can't bite anything. I can't even hit people."

A rush of something hit Louie; oddly enough I guess you could call it jealousy.

"So you haven't murdered anybody lately? Let's be best pals." Buffy joked and again Louie felt another twinge, more along the lines of hurt, she knew she wasn't talking about her but still the words stung.

"Well that's not totally unreasonable, I mean I'm not your best friend or anything even remotely close but I'm still here, ex-vengeance demon and all. And not even a few weeks ago you brought Louie into the fold, who has by her own admission killed thousands of people." Anya's blunt words seemed to change the theme of the room.

All eyes shifted from Anya to Louie who just stood, pulling at the hem of her netted shirt "Louie… you know I never meant… it's totally different."

Buffy abandoned Spike at the sunny door way to comfort the Wendigo, stoking her arm lightly.

Willow glared daggers at Anya while Louie looked up sheepishly into Buffy's green eyes "its ok, I get it."

"I've got information." Spike blurted since they seem to have forgotten all about him "About the soldier boys you were fighting. Got the inside scoop. Come on, what have you got to be afraid of?"

"Commando's?" Louie asked, again confused.

"A group of men roaming Sunnydale and apparently kidnapping and um, experimenting on demons and such, as far as we know." Giles explained

"Oh, nice to be in the loop." Louie muttered mostly to herself.

"Hey we were going to tell you but we just, kind of, forgot is all." Buffy did the pouting thing again and made Louie smile.

"It's all sweetness Buff." She smiled at her friends.

"Hello, daylight, vampire, information!" Spike continued to complain with smoke sizzling off him.

Giles and Buffy seemed to have a silent conversation with their eyes before he rolled his eyes "oh, good heavens, very well. Spike, do come in."

"Bout bloody time!" the vampire mumbled as he all but threw himself into the man's home, nearly falling over he was so weak.

Buffy moved back to let him fall face first onto the floor but a pair of pale slender arms grabbed him on reflex "um, ok where am I putting him?"

Giles pulled out his desk chair and Louie dropped him there unceremoniously as Willow said in her usual chipper tone "I'll get the rope."

Louie took in the appearance of the vampire, he wore mostly black but for a red unbuttoned shirt, his skin was waxy and thin, his eyed though so blue, they almost made her stumble on a memory she couldn't quite grasp "Buffy he's looking kind of… well kind of like Xander right now. When did you last feed?"

"Not since before those bloody gits messed me up good and proper." He watched her for a second; her blue eyes rivalling his own, a flash of pink and a kind smile flashed through his mind but didn't bother sticking around.

As Willow came out with the rope Louie turned to the Slayer "I'll head to the butchers get him something to eat."

"Louie there's really no need." Giles tried to convince her to save her time and money.

Louie just shrugged, bouncing back on the heel of her boot slightly "if we don't feed him soon he's going to get all gross and be useless so yeah there kind of is also I forgot to pick up a paper for the obits, need to know where my next meal's coming from. Buffy do you need anything else for dinner while I'm out?"

Buffy tried to think but shook her head, watching after the girl as she left. She wanted to be useful is all, she also kind of wanted to get away from the sick Xander on the couch she'd been totally avoiding, barely even made contact with the guy all day. Also something about that Spike guy made a shiver run up her spine, not in fear or anything, just a shiver… like when a cold breeze brushed down your neck on an overly warm summer's day. Something familiar that made her chest slightly heavier.

Yeah, Louie had done a lot of avoiding that day, but then it had been a strange day… also sick people, just no!

Again once she'd returned with the blood and paper she seemed to be interrupting a conversation, and closed the door behind her silently "Uh, the preferred term…"

Spike cut Willow off with a roll of his brilliant blue eyes "You won. All right? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That's what conquering nations do. It's what Caesar did, and he's not going around saying, 'I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it.' The history of the world isn't people making friends. You had better weapons, and you massacred them. End of story."

"Well, I think the Spaniards actually did a lot of- Not that I don't like Spaniards." At Buffy's pussyfooting Louie decided to get another drink from the kitchen with Anya, who smacked her hand away when she reached for the brandy "Ow"

"That's not for you and quite frankly I don't Buffy yelling at me because you drank all the bandy for her desert." Anya said while Louie rubbed at her hand, actually pouting herself this time because Giles had also hidden the Whiskey… or she drank it.

Louie made her way back into the main room with the others after putting the blood in the fridge and sneakily snatching a bag of salsa chips from the pantry. Retaking her previous seat on Giles desk with her legs crossed the chips between her legs she eavesdropped on their not so private conversation "Listen to you. How you gonna fight anyone with that attitude?"

Willow looked like she was half way between crying and throwing one of her books at the bound vampire "We don't wanna fight anyone."

"I just wanna have thanksgiving." Louie felt kind of bad for Buffy, she just wanted a nice family holiday with her friends, and truthfully Louie wanted that to.

"Heh heh,yeah... Good luck….Hey!" the last word was directed behind him, without realizing it Louie threw a chip that bounced off Spike's glass cutting cheekbone's, his head turned to her and his brow arched slightly, watching her as she smirked over at him and merrily popped another chip into her mouth.

"If we could talk to him…"

Spike turned back to the two girls he'd tried to murder on numerous occasions "You exterminated his race. What could you possibly say that would make him feel better? It's kill or be killed here. Take your bloody pick."

Louie could see Xander raise his feeble clammy hand just over the cushions "Maybe it's the syphilis talking, but... Some of that made sense."

Giles saw the looks of defeat and understanding on his wards faces and grumbled "I made these points earlier, but fine, no one listens to me."

"Hey I listened and also agreed. I just, didn't want to get yelled at…" Louie pouted again, staring into her bag of chips.

"Fine, ok? But someone still has to go warn the Dean." Buffy had this resolve face that said she wasn't doing it just as Willow jumped in "I'll go. I need the air."

"Not alone." Well that was obvious, and Louie was about to volunteer until Anya and Xander did.

They'd be fine, the three of them, also she might have to help prop Xander up if she went and I really doubt she had that in her.

Buffy gave Xander a concerned once over "Sure you're up to it?"

"Oh, leave that one. He looks like he's ready to drop any minute, and I think I can eat someone if he's already dead." Spike peered over the sofa with a mild lick of her lips

"Ew, seriously? He has Syphilis and god knows what else. No offence Xan." Louie couldn't stop her grimace at the thought.

"Some taken." Xander gave a thin lipped smile.

"Actually yeah, you make a good point… but I don't know, I'm just so very bloody hungry pet." Now it was Spike's turn to pout. Louie's heart actually went out to him a little she knew how bad the hunger could get, hell after she left home she was held up in a cabin for a month, she couldn't even remember the last week of it, just the ghost of the unwavering agony that seemed to be tearing her apart from the inside out. Then she woke up in a snowy Village that had been miles from her cabin, Blood stained her every inch along with the once white snow… it had been so quiet. Everything was dead and her stomach was full.

She bit the inside of her cheek till it bled at the memory. Guilt consuming her.

"I'm up to it."

Giles spoke, already heading back to the books. "I'll keep on looking for a solution."

"Yeah. Guys, the dean's house is up past the gym. And hurry. Dinner's in an hour!" Buffy looked kind of worried as they headed out, more so about if they were late and rushed back into the kitchen.

As Giles moved past Louie with a handful of books he also snatched the chips from her lap "Hey!"

"No more crisp. You'll ruin your appetite. Now if you wouldn't mind getting the extendable dining table out of the cupboard it would be much appreciated." Louie watched him walk off with the bag.

"Hey I'm a freaking wendigo for god's sake; eating is kind of my thing!" but her words fell on deaf ears, well except for the chuckling vampire in the corner.

"Oh, shut up or I'm pouring that blood down the drain!" she glared with her tongue popping out to mock his quickly stern expression. Then she went to grab the stupid table…

About forty minutes later, about thirty of them spend assembling that stupid table Louie declared she hated and was out to destroy her, they were almost ready for dinner "Hey, when do I get fed?"

"Later. I hope the others are ok." Buffy was starting to worry about more than her meal.

Louie smiled and shrugged as she sat folding napkins into little hats with the instruction booklet Buffy had handed her "I'm sure their fine; probably just took a bit longer with Xander being all gross and stuff."

Stopped what she was doing for a second to glance at Louie "What is it with you and sick people? Don't think we haven't noticed the avoidance mode you've been in today with Xander."

"You know what happens to vampires who don't get to feed?" Spike carried on his own little pleading campaign for food that seemed to spark Giles interest "I always wondered that actually."

"Giles, plates. Louie, spill." Buffy barked orders while continuing to set the table.

Spike turned to try and catch Giles's eye, probably hoping for some sympathy "Living skeletons mate. Like famine pictures from those dusty countries, only not half as funny."

Louie strolled over to the table, past Spike with a sway of her hips and started putting the napkins onto the settings "One word, Cholera! In 1820 I got stuck in this old building with a bunch of the victims while my parents were trying to get us out of Bombay. I was there for a few weeks, locked up with all these sick and dying people, it was just so nasty!"

Spike was getting more than a little annoyed about the lack of blood and the lack of acknowledgement "'Ello, did no one hear me about the bleeding skeleton thing? Not a pretty picture."

Buffy was getting pretty sick of the vampire at this point "Do I have to gag you? Because I am not gonna listen to you whine all the way through my dinner. It's gonna be a nice, quiet, civilized…"

Suddenly an arrow pierces the decretive scarecrow on the table; directing everyone's attention to Hus in the window with a bow and arrow in hand.

"You. Listen, maybe I wasn't clear before about how terrible we all feel. 'Cause we're trying to help." Buffy's voice filled with dread.

Spike panicked at hearing Buffy's tone and scuffed his chair to try and see what was happening "What's going on?!"

Giles gently grabbed Buffy's arm, tearing her away from the very pissed off spirit "It isn't working."

"Uh, you can have casinos now." The Slayer pleaded in a last ditch attempt as the living room window was smashed in and Giles called "Get down!"

Giles held Buffy protectively as they along with Louie crouched behind the table as arrows rained through the window.

"What about me? You gonna leave me here like this?" Spike asked just as an arrow hits him a few inches to the right of his heart "Hey! Watch the heart!"

They stayed there for a few minutes trying to come up with a plan when the phone rang. Giles managed to pick it up "H-hello? Yes. ... Yes, w-w-we're well aware of that. ... We-we're under siege now, actually. ... Thank you."

"Who was that?" Buffy asked, wondering why he'd even pick up the phone at a time like this.

"A...Someone. Uh, we need a plan." He shared a glance with the blue eyed wendigo grateful he hadn't slipped up.

"For god's sake this is insane! Hey, it's not our fault your people were killed, we didn't kill them, in fact the people who did have been dead a long ass fucking time so fuck off!" Louie shouted loudly only for an arrow to piece the fabric of the couch and lodge itself threw her chest, straight through her heart.

"Louie!" Buffy screamed as her friend's body went limp, black curls falling to cover her face, not caring about the numerous arrows hitting Spike in the slightest.

They all looked to the girl for a moment, Buffy and Giles staring in shock while Spike… well Spike didn't really care. Then suddenly her head shot back, her skin marbled with pulsing red veins and her eyes became endless crimson pool's "Mother fucker!"

"You're ok, you're ok!" Buffy threw herself to the pinned girl who couldn't even attempt to return her hug so instead patted her awkwardly

"Ok? I have a fucking arrow threw my heart! I'm so eating these bastards…AAHH!" Louie screamed, pulling the arrow quickly out of her chest before examining the wound "damn it… I liked this shirt!"

"Where's your weapons chest?" Buffy asked while Louie tried to calm herself down and let her natural healing kick in.

"Over there" He indicates the chest across the room. Buffy sidles over to the chest after a moment's pause, but is shot in the arm by an arrow. "Ohh!"

"Buffy!" Giles called, Louie moving too quickly pull the blonde back with her still demon claws to the safety where they were huddled.

Spike, still riddled with arrows half jokes and half serious says "Remember that conquering nation thing? Forget it. Apologize."

Giles seemed to have the whole arrow in arm thing under control as Buffy winced "Shut up, spike."

"Fine, I'll do it myself. Hey, sorry. Sorry about that, chief." The vampire tried in vain.

"Don't bother Blondie; they want blood and death, not crappy apologies!" Louie groaned from her seat on the floor before moving with cat like agility to drag the weapons box over to the trio.

"Thanks Louie." Buffy and Giles started searching for weapons and when Buffy handed Louie a crossbow the wendigo shrugged "yeah I've never used one of these…"

Buffy looked at her more than a little surprised "Seriously? Your over three hundred years old and you don't know how to use a crossbow? What have you been doing all this time, besides trying to be the Martha Stewart of the demon world?"

"I was busy… besides I have fangs and claws remember? Never really needed to know how until Indians started skewering me!" Louie growled, still in her demon form.

"It's Native Amer…" Buffy was about to say before getting a death glare from those dark red eyes "Buffy I swear to god!"

"Your right fine, Giles, Ok, one... 2... 3." They started firing but nothing much happened, these guys were good.

"The others are back, their outside!" Louie informed the watcher and slayer the moment their scents reached her, and then Hus and his people actually decided to let themselves in. Buffy fighting Hus himself, Giles dealing with the one that crashed through his living room while Louie clawed at the third one, but as her claws made contact with his skin nothing happened. Not even a small break "oh fuck!"

"Ow! Bloody hell! Ohh!" Spike groaned as yet another arrow landed in his leg.

Buffy stabbed Hus but much like Louie's claws they seemed to have no effect "Giles, these guys- they don't die."

Giles was wrestling with an Indian who has him by the neck "Bit busy over here."

Louie had the third one held off before he manages to stab her in the heart for the second time "Seriously I freaking hate you guys, this outfit wasn't cheap you know!" he abandons her for to climb on the sofa aiming for Buffy, while Louie is pulling the dagger from her heart and didn't notice because hello she'd just been stabbed in the heart. Again!

Thankfully Angel was stood out in the courtyard and planted a knife firmly into the native's head.

As Louie pulled out the dagger she looked at to Buffy, Spike seeming to enjoy the show with a small smile on his face now that people had stopped filling him with arrows. Hus moved to slash at Buffy but instead almost took the vampire's head off as the Slayer dodged his attack. Spike realized he was suddenly on the floor, and turned to see that Louie was laid out beside him and had for some reason or another yanked his chair down, subsequently saving his un-life. He watched as the red washed away back into cool blue and nodded "thanks for that Kitten."

"Don't mention it." Louie almost smiled before moving to stand, but leaving Spike where he lay as he called out to her "Hey!"

With a roll of her eyes Louie turned to pick him back up and happed his head "Don't go anywhere."

Then she headed over to help Giles who was having his head repeatedly smashed against a wall… that is until Louie kicked the attacker's legs out from under him and started wailing on the guy as she screamed "stop stabbing me, stop hurting my friends! Stop. Ruining. Thanksgiving." the last part was said with Louie repeatedly smashing the guys head into the floor.

Buffy was still fighting with Hus and sliced him with his own knife, the thin trail of blood revealing his secret "Your knife can kill you." Hus's eyes fill with rage and a hint of fear before he transforms into a bear.

"A bear! You made a bear!" at Spikes fear filled voice the others turned for s second before continuing their own fights.

Buffy sounded like a child who'd smashed a vase "I didn't mean to."

"Undo it! Undo it!" Spike ordered her like it was something she'd actively done herself. Yeah, because who didn't want to fight a freaking bear on thanksgiving!

"Hey, gentle Ben, over here." Xander calls out before grabbing some potatoes and actually throwing them at the bear "That's for giving me syphilis."

Buffy took the distraction to stab the bear in the back; it quickly turned back into man form before fading into a green mist. And as a result everyone else's opponent did the same. They all started to gather Louie helping Giles to his feet; she couldn't smell any blood on him so that's a good sign.

"What happened? Did we win?" Spike asked from his place on the floor, making Louie arch a brow as she once again got him up right "I'm sure I picked you up before."

"Hang on just a second there Kitten, buy a man dinner first." Spike joked, his eyes scanning over Louie playfully as he realized they had indeed won.

"I already did, it's in the fridge." She smirked with a wink then turned back to everyone else who looked pretty miserable and clapped her hands with a slight rub "Hey, so I was promised a thanksgiving dinner… where are we on that?"

A short while later everyone was gathered around the table eating. Even Spike, well not eating, but mostly just put there because it felt strange with him just sat across the room.

"I feel lousy." Willow mumbled.

Giles looked at her, unsure what she was wrong with her food "Turkey came out rather splendidly."

"Oh, it was yummy. It's just...Did you see me? Two seconds of conflict with an indigenous person, and I turned into General Custer." At willow's hurt expression Louie had the urge to hug her, but didn't, because mostly that wasn't really her thing and also she had about a pound of pumpkin pie in her mouth.

"Violence does that. Instinct takes over." Giles tried to explain.

Spike didn't look up from his blank space on the table as he weighed in "Yeah, that's the fun."

Xander hit the vampire with a glare and just snarled at him "Nobody asked you."

"Oh, lay off. You all had a fine meal but me... an entire siege; you'd think one of you would bleed a little." Spike grumbled because yeah, he was freaking hungry!

"Oh stop your complaining, you'll get yours after we've finished and hey Will I'm proud of you, yeah sure what happened to those people was bad but then they did the bad, coming up here and after innocent people after my people! Their lucky I couldn't eat their hearts, because it would have been sl-ow! Oh and Buffy this… so good! Uh, is there any more pie left?" Louie laughed a little with a roll of her eyes while Anya passed her the remaining pie, shovelling more food onto her plate with a happy little smile.

Giles's lip twitched into a smile at the strange girl's words "yes Good work, Buffy... On both counts."

Buffy looked kind of disappointed "Thanks"

Giles, knowing Buffy and how hard she'd tried spoke up "Well, you know, you should be very pleased."

"Wasn't exactly a perfect thanksgiving." And again out came the pout.

Xander looked around the room, wondering what the hell she was talking about "I don't know. Seemed kinda right to me. A bunch of anticipation, a big fight, and now we're all sleepy."

Giles laughed "And we did all survive."

"I guess that much is true. First thanksgiving on my own, and we all got through it." Buffy's tone seemed to pick up.

Louie licked the crumbs from the corner of her mouth "Hey this was my first ever thanksgiving and I've enjoyed the hell out of it, despite Xander being all gross in close proclivity and the whole stabbing thing."

Xander, patting Anya on the shoulder smiled suggestively "And on that subject, you know what? I think my syphilis is clearing right up.

A sense of total grossed-out-ness hit the room as Buffy spoke "And they say romance is dead. Or maybe they just wish it."

Willow smiled, trying to change the subject and lift the mood "Well, maybe we started a new tradition this year." The look she got from everyone gave made her realize she was wrong "Maybe not. But at least we all worked together. It was like old times."

"Yeah, especially with Angel being here and everything." Xander blurted out like a total idiot.

Everyone looks at Buffy. Her eyes turning to the size wide with something Louie didn't fancy sticking around to find out about so the wendigo stood and rounded the table "Look, Spike it's your dinner time."

"What, really?" the vampire questioned in sheer excitement as Louie grabbed the back of his chair and pulled him backwards into the kitchen, no doubt scuffing the floor as she went.

Once they were in the kitchen Louie quickly grabbed a bag of blood from the fridge and poured some of it into the biggest cup she could find before popping it into the microwave. As Buffy started grilling the others and the microwave made a noise Spike laughed "trust Peaches to cause wreckage when the wanker isn't even around proper."

"You mean Angel?" Louie asked in hushed tones, not wanting to draw to much attention to herself.

"Yeah, that's the bugger, you have the pleasure?" he asked with a raised brow more out of boredom than actual interest.

"Yeah, I tackled him; he seemed pretty pissed that I didn't know who he was." As the microwave dinged Louie took the mug and starred it with a spoon, licking said spoon clean to enjoy the light sweet tang and to also check the temperature. For Spike the scene was almost orgasmic, I mean come on a beautiful girl slowly licking blood, name a vampire that wouldn't enjoy that sight.

"Yeah, that's Angelus all over, thinks he's so bloody special because he got himself all cursed and what have you, not to mention that massive bleeding fod that follows his hair all the way up!" Louie laughed at the obvious bitterness in the vampire's voice and instead knelt to feed him the scrummy AB- after finally finding the straws.

"Yeah well, he seemed ok, kind of broody for my taste. I like someone with a sense of humour, my Thomas could make me laugh for days. Angel seems like he'd just want to sit in the dark and talk about battle tactics all night." Apparently she said the right thing because Spike smiled around the straw, looking up at her with his baby blues, head tilting to the side as he opened his mouth to ask her a question…

"Hey, it wasn't just us! Louie's known since last night why aren't you yelling at her!" Anya yelled through the entire complex.

Louie groaned and stood properly to glare at the ex-vengeance demon through the kitchen hatch "oh thanks a lot Anya!"

Spikes question left unanswered and all but forgotten as he enjoyed his cup op blood and the carnage of the Scooby's little fight… maybe another time.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys, ok this chapter nearly killed me so please let me know what you think. I don't want to rush Louie and Spike so if you think I am let me know. Thank you all so much for the reviews and I hope to read more of them and that you keep enjoying this.**

 **JJ Xoxo**

Ever since Spike had turned up Giles had been kind of cranky, probably because he was the one stuck with the undead house guest and Buffy came back from LA after scolding Angel about his little covert thing eager to forget it happened, Louie had actually gone with Buffy to LA because there was some band called Blink-800 or something that she managed to get concert tickets for. Xander and Anya where officially dating and apparently inseparable and Willow, well she was trying to push through, putting on a brave face, anyone who was actually paying attention could see it.

Louie was walking home, the sky was a grey black color and the light hum of the florescent street lights, along with a warm Californian breeze brought a calm to her bones… when suddenly she bumped slap bang hard brick wall, oh, a Riley shaped wall "Oh I'm sorry, Louie hey."

She smiled up at the overly tall man "Riley hi, what um… what are you doing out here?"

It was past midnight and Louie wasn't sure how she felt about her friend's potential new boyfriend wondering around alone at night.

"I was just going for a walk, couldn't sleep so… you?" he smiled, didn't even miss a beat and Louie could feel something watching her, them, from the shadows.

The black haired girl smiled a toothy smile at him "I was at an old friend's for dinner, then kind of lost track of time… you know." It wasn't even a lie, she'd gone to see Gritton and his family who was held up in some old underground church that apparently once held the Master, leader of the Order of Aurelius. Druka had even bought her a apple pie.

He gave her a worried expression, before looking around the deserted street, his gaze lingering near the nearby trees for a moment to long "maybe I should walk you home, not really safe to be roaming around at night."

Louie felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and knew that there was others near, human if her nose didn't deceive her "I'm a big girl Riley, besides don't you have a date tomorrow?"

"Please I insist. So, Buffy told you about the picnic?" he started to walk along side her; unaware that she was in no actual danger.

Clinging her long black coat tight into herself Louie walked with a small smile at the memory of Buffy's excitement when she'd told her and Willow earlier that night "Duh, girls tell each other everything… we'll that what I've figured anyway."

"You haven't had many girlfriends before?" the shock in his voice made Louie squirm and stare at the gravel her boots were lazily kicking at as she walked "Nope, I mean I've had friends, you know here and there, I just… I've always been a bit of a nomad, my family traveled a lot and I guess I never really broke the habit."

His brow frowned as they rounded the corner, her apartment just in sight on the next block "sounds pretty lonely, so are you thinking of sticking around here?"

A twitch of a smile came to Louie's lips, she chose a pink gloss that day to match the ribbon in her hair "yeah, I don't know it just, feels right, about time. I think can make it work here. Anyways forget me and my drama, so what made you decide on a picnic?"

"My parents, they go up to the lake back home every weekend, it's where they had their first date." Louie looked into the boys eyes and almost cooed at how sweet he was.

With a hand over her heart Louie sighed "aw, that's freaking adorable. You have to tell her that story, trust me its gold!"

"So she liked it right, the picnic idea? Because if not we could do something else…" 

His panic made Louie brighten with joy, he liked her, he really did and Buffy deserved that "Relax Romeo, it's good. A nice, sunny picnic. She loves it, much better than dark and gloomy she's used to."

Riley quirked a brow at that "Dark and gloomy?"

"Um yeah, her ex, he was, well… sorry, so not my place." She wasn't sure if she should tell him, obviously not about the vampire part, but you know the other bits.

A strange need to know what it was he was up against consumed him, was this guy still around, was he dangerous "please, what do you mean dark and gloomy? Did he… did he hurt her?"

"No, no, no he just… from what I know it was intense, this big love that was doomed to crash and burn from the second it started. Also he seemed really moody to me." she didn't look at him as she fumbled with her purse for her keys.

"You, um, you met him?"

Louie's head snapped back at the corn-fed boy as he stiffened, total angst pouring off him in waves and Louie just a little in awkwardness "Yeah, he was in town on business is all. Very serious guy… but you Riley, you're a sweet guy and you don't have anything to worry about. Pinky swear!"

The older boy looked at the perfectly black manicured finger she offered and laughed "that's not necessary."

Her head tilted to the side as she fixed him with a stern look motioning to her still waiting pinky. Riley blinked a few times before breathing a heavy sigh and wrapping his own pinky around the Wendigo's. Louie smiled up at him, satisfied as she lightly kicked the jammed door to her apartment building open "oh and Riley, if you tell Buffy I told you… I'll tie you down and eat your face. Kisses!"

At her chipper tone but unnerving words Riley just stared at the closed green door she'd left behind her before shaking his head and head back to his squadron "that's one freaky girl."

The next day Louie only had one class and had thankfully finished her essay a few days before, after word she headed over the Giles's, knowing willow was going to be there to do the truth spell she'd talked about the day before. The porcelain skinned girl wasn't sure how she felt about it, wasn't sure what would happen to Spike once they got the information they needed. It's not that she gave too much of a crap but he was funny, him and Buffy tormenting each other and how easily the quips flew out of his mouth. She kind of liked the guy.

She knocked on Giles door lightly before actually letting herself in, apparently the man didn't use his lock and the others didn't know what knocking was "Giles?"

Through the kitchen hole Louie could see he was on the phone as he just waved weakly and she strolled over to the sofa to drop her bag and looked around the empty room and just caught the end of the old Liberians call "Look, uh… Willow… I think we ought to try the spell. Among other things, I'd like to shower sometime today. Alone."

"No Willow?" Louie asked looking to her jelly watch; no way could she have beaten Willow there.

With a frustrated sigh Giles cleaned his glasses "Apparently not, have you seen her at all?"

"Not since yesterday… do you think she's ok?" a shiver of worry ran up Louie's spine at the thought.

"Yes, yes of course, if something were amiss Buffy would be here. No, I'm sure Willow is well and that she is just delayed…" he seemed pretty confident in his words however a worry line in his brow deepened that he couldn't hide.

she looked over at the worried father figure and thought for a moment of her own father, was he worried about her right now, did he miss her… did he even care.

"Oi! I know you can bloody well hear me Watcher. For god's sake, just turn on the bastard telly!" Spike's voice echoed from the bathroom. 

Giles looked like he was going to put his heat through a wall, making Louie bite at her plump lip "if you want I'll watch him while you shower… I heard you on the phone."

A look of hope beamed brightly from his eyes, eager for some actual alone time in his own home "Are you certain?"

"Sure, it's not like he can hurt me and besides, big bad Wendigo remember?" Louie shrugged coyly, a warm feeling rushing though her at his grateful stare.

"Oh thank heavens, I'll just find that blasted key. Thank you Louie." His smile was tight lipped as the relief washed over him.

Once Spike was moved into the living room and tied up to the chair he'd come to know on thanksgiving Louie had been nice enough to actually put Passions on for him and was making him something to eat.

Not like she had anything else to do.

"Here you go…" she put the perfectly heated cup in Spike's chained hands.

"Thanks, Kitten…hum what's that?" after taking a sip of the blood and licking his lips curiously at the taste his icy blue gems locked over at the girl who was digging through her backpack.

"Oh, I added some red pepper flakes, I know how spicy the blood gets when their all scared and shit… figured you might miss that." more like she was bored and experimenting but hey, the other thing works to.

He quirked his scarred brow at her before taking another skeptical sip and nodding with a look of amazement "not bad pet… still feel like it's missing something though."

"I know, I've tried everything over the years, I mean you can use cinnamon to get that sweetness when you get them all hot before going for the kill, sage and juniper for that survival instinct that runs straight through the meat but fear and virgin's… still work's in project." She said while taking a pair of chopsticks and shoveling a portion of sweet and sour noodles, but with thigh-of-random-drunk-driver rather than chicken.

"Put a lot of thought into this have we?" Spike mocked her halfheartedly. The girl had been the only one of the lot that hadn't taken the utter piss out of his situation, even the little witch had made the odd comment before shying away.

With her mouth full and trying to not smudge her grey lipstick Louie, slurped up the noodles that tried to escape her before leaning back into the soft cushions "I've been doing this a lot longer than you pretty boy, besides I took a few cooking classes. I had time to kill."

"I don't understand why you do it at all, Pet. Me, well haven't much choice at the moment do I but you… you can go out there, you can taste them, all fresh and warm, feel them squirm and beg beneath you and instead your slumming it with the bloody goody toe shoes act." His words held a resentful anger to them.

Louie's baby blues scanned over the vampire with a small shake of her head, his words had stuck her, flashes of memory breaking through, it made her sick and hungry at the same time… the demon and the human parts of her battling it out over what emotion she should feel at the memories of ripping ripe flesh from screaming bone with her teeth. A pair of grey eyes and a sad smile flashed into the forefront of her mind, guilt consuming her and flooding over the old tingle of excitement and glee "you wouldn't understand, I'm just different is all."

"Bloody bonkers is more like it." he almost tried to insult her with his harsh tone.

Instead though she smiled, kicking her boots out onto the table "yeah, but I'm adorable."

Again he quirked a brow at the woman, sat watching TV, stuffing her face with dead meat and noodles. He just didn't get it, she was an old and feared creature; a creature of the darkness, like him. So why was she tip toeing into the light? It made him want to bash her head into the wall and knock some sense into her.

But instead he sipped greedily at the pig's blood and watched some telly. Maybe another day…

When Louie walked into the Bronze she scanned the ever moving crowd for her friends. She'd gotten home from Giles's to a message on her machine ' _Louie hey it's Buffy. Look something's happened, Willow's pretty upset. I mean she's fine you know but not really so we're meeting at the Bronze later to cheer her up, see you seven."_

A deep sinking feeling hit Louie at the message, wondering what could have upset the little witch so much… she figured she'd find out when she met up with the others and she had just enough time to change.

When her nose picked up their scent before her eyes did Louie made her way over to the table, dropping to her seat between Buffy and Xander as she asked "ok, what happened, who am I eating? Dive me an address."

Anya laughed a little at that before Buffy finally told them what had happened "Oz. turns out Will's been going to his room a lot, she went last night and well it was pretty deserted. Devon apparently said Oz just sent for it so, yeah…"

"Geez, you mean Oz just sent for his stuff and didn't even call her? That's pretty harsh." Xander shook his head, obviously disappointed in the werewolf and sorry for his friend.

A familiar bloodlust boiled to the surface of Louie's skin as she tried to calm herself "What a fucking asshole!"

"I only wish I had my powers back. I'd liquefy his entrails for her." Anya offered generously, holding on to Xander's hand all couple-y.

While Buffy seemed to think the comment was a little much judging by her expression Xander beamed at her with a hint of pride "That's sweet. God, poor Will. No wonder she's…" out of the corner of his eye Xander saw a flash of red then turned to see Willow, dancing up a storm on the dance floor "…having a wonderful time."

Buffy looked over at her best friend with an approving nod "Wow. Way to re-bound." 

"I believe that's the dance of a brave little toaster." Xander smiled ear to ear, happy to see her happy for the first time since Oz broke her heart.

Louie just watched her for a second with a little smile on her face, that all but instantly fell when the little red head spotted them and come closer, breaking from the mixed scents of the crowd… oh this was not good.

"Hey, guys! C'mon! This music's great!"

"It's nice to see you brought your boogie shoes tonight, Will." Xander said as Louie just looked at Willow, the others couldn't see it but she could smell it all over the witch, booze.

"Yeah…I-I know I've been sort of a party-poop lately, so I said to myself, 'Self!' I said, 'It's time to shake and shimmy it off.'" she was pretty good and not slurring her words though, it was strange Louie had never seen drunken Willow before… should she mention it? Tell the others? Take Willow to the side and talk it out.

Buffy smiled over at her, pleased with the lack of moping "Sounds like a good policy."

"Yeah! And it works, too. You know, I figure, in the grand scheme of things, we're all just…" Willow grabs her jacket and from underneath it falls a bottle of beer, its contents foaming out onto the floor and everyone shooting Willow disapproving glances.

"Drunk..?" Buffy asked her more authority pitched slayer voice.

Willow laughed absently before picking up the bottle here eyes resembling that of a child with his hand in the cookie jar before dinner "Drunk…I mean, that's such a-a strong word. Kind of a guttural Anglo-Saxon word. Drunk."

"Will, not loving the drowning of the sorrows." Xander scolded his childhood friend

Willow pouted hard at that, almost clutching to the bottle "Not drowning — wading. A-a-and…See? Light. No big." 

"No big? Anyone remember when Buffy had the fun beer-fest and went one-million years B.C.?" Louie's attention diverted from Willow to Buffy.

"What? I missed that? Damn it." a very suggestive image entering her mind as Xander spoke "Sadly without the fuzzy bikini…"

Anya rolled her eyes "Off topic, Xander." 

"Right. Topic now." Xander gets up and walk's to Willow to try and take the beer away from her "Will, how about you give me that beer?"

"No! Why should I? I've got pain, here… big-time legitimate pain."

"We all have pain, Will." Xander's words struck a chord with Louie, who growled low in her throat, how dare he diminish her pain like that? Like it was nothing new or profound to her and her alone…

"Oh, like what? 'Oh, poor me… I live in a basement.' Yeah, that's dire." Willow's word were just as biting as Xander's and Louie couldn't contain another growl before standing as Xander stalked back to his girlfriend clearly offended "Willow, what the fuck? Look obviously you can't handle your booze like I can, so let's limit the amount of drinkers in the circle yeah?"

"Oh Please, so you can drink yourself into a stupor every night to forget your crappy stuff but I can't? Double standards much?" the red head snarled and Louie couldn't help but flinch back at her words.

Buffy seemed to think that that was a line in the sand, taking Willow's arms and dragging her away from the table "Okay, you know what? That's it — I'm taking you home." 

Louie slowly sat back in her seat, staring after the two women with a heavy lump in her chest as Anya now sat between the two and noticed their sullen experience "you both seem upset, you shouldn't be, I used to deal with women like her all the time in my vengeance days. All that pain just bubbling over, for some reason it always comes out as anger to people they care about. Must be a human thing, but then, when I got cheated on I directed my anger right where it was needed and turned that cheating basted into a great big, ugly troll." 

For some reason Anya words brought comfort to the pair, both of them sharing a sad smile as they realized Willows anger wasn't for them, her harsh words where just the pain and the beer… she didn't mean it.

That night Louie went back to her apartment after having maybe one too many drinks with Anya, and had actually gotten along with the woman once they had some sort of discussion about how she wasn't after Xander and proved it by kissed three random guys then Anya… wait she invited the woman round for movies… oh god why!

So she lay out on her bed, barely kicking off one shoe before a large hand steadied her. Louie turned back with blurry beer goggles but smiled at the comforting and familiar scent and slurred slightly "hey big man! Hey wait… wha' you doin here?"

"Taking care of you. Miss Eloise." Gritton's claws moved carefully to take off her boots before creeping around the bed to gently lift her to try and grab the blanket.

A smile crept up her face at the demon's warm and soothing touch. He tucked her in like he had done so many times before, from when he would wipe away the remains of her latest kill as she crashed from the high to when she finally cried herself into a reluctant slumber after losing her beloved Thomas.

"Thanks Grit, you're like totally the greatest you know that? Always lookin' after me. love you…"

"And I you my dear, sweet Eloise." He moved her dark hair from her makeup smudged face, his fiery bright gaze lingering but for a moment before taking his leave to trail home through the old woods.

How had he known she was drunk and hurt by the witch's words, well of course he was watching her from the shadows he mastered, saw her hurt and felt the need to ensure her safety. He had watched over that girl for more than two hundred years, ever since he was to be torn apart by a coven for the magic that ran though his veins, Louie had saved him, devoured them all then stood above his shackled form like a pitiless Goddess and to him that is what she became.

He had repaid his dept to her many lifetimes ago, so why did he stay… even during her murderous rampages she showed tenderness towards him, a rare affection that grew over the times and struggles… she was a part of him, she may as well have been one of his own kin.

He loved the girl.

That was the last thought that entered the demon's mind before surging agony erupted through every vein of his body.

He heard voices surround him.

Heard hearts beat as darkness consumed him and the last thing he heard was a deep human voice "hostile is down, repeat hostile is down…"

Meanwhile across town Willow had made the decision that she didn't want to be in this pain anymore, she had magic so, why not use it… it was only practical really. After all what harm could a little Will Be Done Spell do?

Louie woke up that day and thanked god for who ever invented painkillers because damn her head hurt, she smiled though at the memory of Gritton tucking her in, always looking out for her. Before she managed to crawl out of bed she'd already decided she wasn't going to classes, nope, she needed a little bit of Louie time… nothing wrong with that.

So she got dressed and decided she needed to let off some steam… so she headed to the Arcade.

It had become kind of her little safe haven, she'd run into one of these places back in the eighties and loved the vibe, all were welcome, jocks, geeks, nerds… also she was pretty awesome at Pac-Man.

Louie had spent most of the day there, Beat a few high scores, ate her weight in fries and was able to get out of her head for a few hours. Well maybe more than a view hours because by the time she was heading out it was dark… then her cell rang.

"Hello?"

"Louie, hey…" Willow's sweet sat little voice echoed on the other end of the phone.

"Willow… what now you're calling to comment on my excessive eating or the lack of color in my wardrobe?" it was harsh but Willow's little comment last night had hurt her; that kind of kicked the demon into the driver's seat.

Willow quickly began rambling down the phone "No,no,no I just, you know, sorry about, well… what I said. I didn't mean it, I was just, you know with the pain and the beer?"

Louie stopped to close her eyes and take a deep breath, trying to settle the demon within "yeah, I get it. We're good."

Louie could hear the breath of relief come from the other end of the call; she was trying not to let the hurt come forward and take control. Willow was her friend, a friend she wanted to keep so yeah, just push it down and move on "thank goddess. I thought you'd hate me because you know, and well I didn't mean to call you an alcoholic, not that you are I just…"

"Will, Breathe!" Louie laughed and a smile tugged at her lips.

"Right, breathing, that is of the good, yes… anyway. Sorry. What have you been up to all day?" Willow was more than a little relieved about this conversation, she'd already called Xander earlier but she and Louie were new and she was scared her little outburst had cost her, her friend.

"I just spent most of the day making kids cry and comfort eating."

"Um, making kids cry?" there was no accusation in the Witches soft voice just confusion.

The Black haired girl just explained with a shrug to herself as she rounded a corner "I was at the arcade, those kids wish they had my skills."

A high pitched laugh echoed down the phone "Seriously, the arcade? Wow I never knew you and Xander had so much in common."

"What, I like video games, so sue me. I also like laser tag, but I get way to into it. It never ends pretty" yeah, Louie had actually been pretty good, and then came the Laser tag tournament of 96… no definitely not pretty.

"Oh, gosh your such a child!" as Willow laughed down the phone Louie felt a tightening in her chest, it was heartburn, that all. Too many fries…

"Well one of my favorite books is Great Expectations and a few other classics so I think the evens it out a little. Besides your one to talk, I've seen the inside of your wardrobe." The pain was growing and Louie almost felt like she was going to be sick.

"Ok, fair point… so are you doing anything tonight? Maybe we could have a girl's night, Buffy pretty much bailed on me." Willow's tone dropped and Louie could almost hear the pout forming.

Her head was swimming lightly "Um, I don't know Will, I, I don't feel too good… kind of dizzy actually. Rain check?"

"Right, So you can spend all day on video games but can't come over to see me?" at Willow's sudden turn Louie tried her best to focus, leaning back into a brick wall to try and steady herself "what? Willow no…I just…"

"Its fine I get it, Spike's more important than I am, video games are more important than I am, hell Xander kicked me about because apparently sex with a thousand year old ex-demon is more important than I am. Just fine whatever!"

"What Willow no I just… Willow… Will…" somewhere between Willow's angry little rant Louie had somehow slid to the floor, closing her eyes to try and stop the spinning of everything around her. Her head hurt now to as she fell to the floor, clutching onto the fabric on her chest as the world went black…

"Hey…Hey…kid…"

Louie's big baby blues opened and she realized she was sat on the floor for some strange reason, there was a youngish couple stood not too far away, the strangers made her instantly shift back into the wall and growl as the woman took a step got closer "hey now, hey we're not going to hurt you. Are you lost or maybe need help?"

Louie didn't understand why this woman was talking to her like she was an idiot. Then of course she saw it, a broken piece of mirror across the alley that seemed to have a girl no more than eight looking back at her, her long black hair tossed every which way and her usually snug clothes way to big… hell her boots didn't even fit. "What the holy fuck is this shit?!"

Back in Giles's apartment Giles is talking to Willow's machine for the umpteenth time that week "Willow, it's-it's me. Something's happened. I need your help. I can't see very well. Everything's blurred." He grabs the scotch needing a firm drink to deal with the disgusting display his blurred vision seemed to be showing him "I'm certain it's a spell of some kind, because… well…it seems something else is going wrong…"

He watched from the kitchen as Buffy brought Spike a mug of blood and sat herself on his lap "Here you go … 98.6." the pair lean in for a kiss.

Giles looks on in horror "... horribly wrong."

Giles makes his way carefully into the living room, glass of scotch in hand. He takes a seat on the couch as Spike and Buffy continue their little argument "Warm breeze tosses the leaves aside, and again … you're registering as Mr. and Mrs. Big-Pile-of-Dust."

Buffy stuck out her bottom lip like a child "Stop it! This is our wedding and you're treating it like a big joke!"

Her reaction made Spike smile "Oh, pouty! Look at that lip… gonna get it… gonna get it…"

She giggles and they kiss and as Buffy says playfully into the kiss "Oh…stop…"

"Yes, please stop." Giles takes a good swig of his drink while Buffy holds her hand out gleefully in Giles' direction "Giles, did you see my ring?"

"Thankfully, not very well." Giles leans back and rubs his eyes. Buffy gets up from Spike's lap and goes to sit beside Giles. This was important to her "I'm not crazy, and I know that you probably don't approve, and my father's not that far away, I mean, he could… but this day is about family… my real family… and I would like you to be the one to give me away."

The reality of the situation fades and Giles is overcome with dept of emotion "Oh, Buffy! That's... that's so… Oh! For God's sake! This is nonsense. Something is making you act this way. Don't you realize what you're doing?"

Buffy smiles happy and looks back at Spike lovingly "living the dream."

Spike leans forward and returns her doting gaze, a gaze Buffy remembered he once savored for Drusilla alone "He's gonna have to take a bit of time to get used to it, pet."

"they all will…But you guys weren't crazy about Angel at first, either." Spike immediately snapped forward at that "You weren't gonna say that name."

Buffy glanced over at him full of guilt at having mentioned her old flame, knowing how much damage Angelus had done to Spike's last relationship "Sorry. Why don't we talk about where we're going to register?"

Spike wasn't letting it go "Well, where would Angel like to register? And can we have the photographer Angel would've wanted? And, flowers Angel would have liked?"

There's a light knock on the door as Giles moves to open it with a prayer on his lips that it's Willow, that she could fox this horror show. Giles squints hard at the sight, a little girl stood with a stern glare and her arms folded, jaw set hard in anger with curly waist length back hair wearing a far to large flannel shirt as a dress, held with a belt around the middle and combat boots that were obviously for a woman not a child "um, may I help you my dear?"

"Yeah, you can figure out why the fuck I'm pre-pubescent!" the girl snapped, storming into the room and interrupting Buffy and Spike's wedding planning/arguing/kissing thing.

The pair looked over at the little girl and Spike asked after the familiar cent of mint, copper and cinnamon hit him "Louie?"

"No apparently I'm a freaking Elf!"

Buffy shot off Spikes lap and over to her friend, eyeing her with utter amazement "oh my god what happened to you?"

"That's a good question. I'd like to know the answer, so can we please figure this crap out before I rip someone's throat out!" Spike laughed slightly at the girl's angry glare "Sorry Kitten it just… very funny."

In a flash Louie was over at the vampire, clawing at him with her not so long talons, in fact they were more like long nails in her childlike form "fuck you this isn't funny!"

He was about to throw the little firecracker across the room when he heard a quiet sob "hey now… what's this?"

Buffy was stood near the sofa laughing at the scene as Giles retook his seat and chugged back the rest of his drink. Louie had stopped trying to claw Spikes eyes out and was now clinging to his unbuttoned red shirt "this isn't fair, I can't… this isn't…I'm so fucking little! I'm useless."

Spike looked around the room for a second before he did what he had done since the day he was turned; he comforted the broken dark haired girl. Stoking her hair gently and rubbing soothing circles into her back as she sobs Spike uses the soft tone he knew had calmed Drusilla so well "Well now that's just not true pet, almost just took my bleeding eye out for one, besides this… this is obviously some spell alright, you'll be alright Kitten."

She looks up to him with a timid shy smile, her big blue eyes glistening with the tears racing down her cheeks "thanks… sorry I just… Wendigo's, when we're kids we kind of, you know Peter Pan and The whole Tinkerbelle thing?"

Spike chuckles at her analogy as Buffy comes to kneel beside her, brushing her fingers through her long hair "well I think you look adorable."

Giles sat silent across the room, wishing to wake up from this strange and horrific nightmare as he reaches for his glass of scotch, knocking it to the floor.

"Giles are you okay?" the other three turn to Giles as the glass hit the floor

Giles face is full of fear as he speaks steering blankly ahead of him "I rather think not. I seem to be rather… rather… blind; completely, in fact."

"What? How could this happen?" Buffy walks over to him, clearly concerned, Louie hot on her heels while Spike straight away starts scanning over Giles books. 

Louie looks him over as Buffy waves a hand in front of his face "A spell, I believe."

"This can't be a coincidence, I mean come on I'm turned into one of the seven dwarfs, Giles goes blind and… wait a minute were you two kissing when I walked in?" Louie stared bewildered between Buffy and Spike, who hated each other, belittled each other and had tried to kill each other. I mean yeah there was that underlying attraction but hey what mortal enemy's don't have that?

Apparently little-Louie's words fell on deaf ears "Well, we'll fix it. Don't worry. Either of you!"

Spike was stood over by more of Giles books, trying to find something "What you want is a general reversal spell. Gonna need supplies."

Giles looked amazed as he spoke "Are you… helping me?"

Spike smiled over at the blind man "Well, it's almost like you're my father-in-law, in'nt? And Louie well, you still got'a tell me how to fix up the blood and make it all tasty and what not." The last part was said in a jokey tone that almost made little-Louie laugh, but instead she smiled with a shake of her head and a roll of her eyes.

Buffy beamed brightly "See? This is how it's gonna be. Spike'll even take care of you while I'm at the magic shop." Buffy stands and walks to Spike who takes her in his arms "From now on, we're a family."

They…you know the drill. Giles gets all panicky. He stands and wobbles his way to the kitchen "That's alright. I have more scotch."

"Make that two!" little-Louie calls out.

Giles laughed bitterly from the kitchen "Absolutely not!" 

"What? why?"

Buffy broke yet another smooch-fest to look at "Louie, Giles is right. It just… you're… you know, a little girl."

The miniature Wendigo jumped off the sofa, no seriously she jumped because she couldn't get down otherwise, anyway, yeah she jumped and stared at them all in disbelief "oh come on, I'm over three-hundred years old! I've been drinking before your grandparents were ever born!"

They all just gave her a pointed look before she slumped back into the soft cushions with her arms folded tight around her small frame and a large pout on her lips "I hate you all!"

It was actually seriously cute.

When Buffy finally gets back from the store she drops down a few bags before informing everyone that the magic shop was lacking a vital ingredient to this reversal spell, then pulled out a few Bridal Brosures, a cake topper and a lacy pink dress that she demanded would look so cute on the little wendigo "Not a chance in hell am I putting that thing on, I'm a grown woman!"

"I also got you some underwear." Buffy offered, knowing that without Louie's usual curvaceous hips there was no way what underwear she'd had on earlier would have fit her "…but you have to wear the dress!"

Little-Louie growled and threw a tantrum, stomping her feet into the floor angrily on the spot before blowing her hair out of her face and snatching the bag away from Buffy "I hate you…"

"No you really don't." Buffy smiled with a little head tilt before taking a seat on her Fiancés lap while Louie headed into the bathroom to change.

Buffy is holding the cake topper…a man and a woman, both blonde…and walking them up Spike's arm, humming the wedding march. "Duh dum, da-da… Duh dum, da-da, duh dum da-da dum da-da dum da da…"

Giles was still lying on the couch, a towel over his eyes and a harsh tone in his voice "So the plan is to cure my total, incapacitating blindness ... tomorrow."

Buffy, clearly unconcerned after having her plan already set "They were all out of Tagas Root at the magic shop. They'll have more tomorrow. I'm completely on top of it. Aren't they a perfect little us?

Spike stared down the little figures disapprovingly "I don't like him. He's insipid; clearly human."

"Ooh, red paint. We could smear a little on his mouth…blood of the innocent…" a smile crept onto the vampires face, beaming with pride "That's my girl…" He grabs the back of her head and pulls her into a teeth clashing kiss.

"Stop that right now! I can hear the smacking." Giles scolds the pair just as little-Louie walked into the room.

Buffy and Spike reluctantly stop and take a look at the little wendigo, Buffy clasping a hand over her heart at the sight "oh my god, you look so perfect… would you consider staying like this just until the wedding because you'd made the most perfect flower girl?"

Little-Louie took a few steps towards the couple, her jaw clenched tight "Buffy, I love you I do, but I also love alcohol, my own boobs and orgasms. So… NO!"

With her hands held up in mock surrender Buffy set the figurines down and picked up a notebook from the table "Geesh, sorry I asked. Honey, we need to talk about the invitations. Now, do you wanna be William the Bloody, or just Spike? 'Cause, either way, it's gonna look majorly weird."

"Where as the name Buffy gives it that touch of classic elegance." Spike mocked her and as Little-Louie sneaked into the kitchen and struggled to reach the scotch

Slapping her notebook closed the Slayer glared at Spike "What's wrong with Buffy?"

"Huh… such a good question." Giles snickered absently.

As the 'happy couple' argued for the millionth time that night and Little-Louie had finally got hold of the scotch thanks to the help of the trashcan, Anya and Xander suddenly burst through the front door. Everyone stands as Xander pulls a bookshelf in front of the door. "Board up the windows, and barricade the doors."

Giles sat up, seeing nothing but darkness and hearing Xander's distressed voice "What's going on?"

Anya sounds pretty out of breath "Demons. They keep coming and coming…"

"I think we lost them, but I couldn't see… Spike! He's all untied! …Which you probably noticed." Just before the end of Xander's little rant Little-Louie walked out of the kitchen with her glass of scotch, sipping lightly and making Anya smile "oh, hello little girl."

Little-Louie just gestures to the pair with a raise of her glass as Buffy speaks "Xander, calm down, okay? If you lost them, that'll give us some time to figure this out. Maybe the demons have something to do with Giles being blind and Louie being all little-ifiyed!"

"Giles is blind?"

"Louie?"

Both Xander and Anya ask at the same time, Little-Louie just raises her eyebrows in answer, gulping at the scotch hungrily and Xander walks over to Giles and starts waving his fingers in front of the poor man's face "Please stop whatever you're doing. You smell like fruit roll-ups."

Spike looks around with an awed gaze "This is the crack team that foils my every plan? I am deeply shamed."

Buffy, while hanging onto Spike's arm, agrees "Spike's right. We really should get organized."

Xander and Anya are staring at Spike and Buffy, Xander wide eyed and Anya just confused and blunt as always "Why are you holding hands?"

Buffy and Spike look at each other lovingly "They have to hear it sooner or later…"

The pair clings onto each other as Buffy exclaims excitedly "Spike and I are getting married!"

Xander just looks at them totally baffled "How? What? How?"

Giles stumbles to a stand "Three excellent questions."

Spike gazes at Buffy with lust filled eyes "What are you lookin' at?"

"The man I love." They kiss. A lot. Anya and Xander look a bit disgusted, while Little-Louie heads back into the kitchen for another drink. She hated being little, even when she was a kid it pissed her off, not she mostly missed her boobs and swore she'd never complain about barely being over five foot ever again.

Xander can't seem to take the sight of his best friend and the vampire that had tried to kill them all a bunch of times "Can I be blind, too? Wait… married… I know something… what is it? Everything's so familiar… Work, brain — work! Oh! Oh, oh! Willow!"

Buffy tried talking around the kissing at Xander's eureka moment "Mm…what about Will… Mmm, honey, get off."

"Something about Willow and her griefy-poor-me mood swings — so, so tired of it." Xander wasn't wrong, yeah her being in pain was one thing but she seemed to be taking it out on everyone else.

Anya looked a little too please "You mean I don't have to be nice about her anymore?"

Buffy had no idea what he was actually talking about "Well, we're all tired of it, but what does it have to do with what's going on?"

"She told me I was a demon magnet, a-and you two should get married." Xander explained, pretty excited that he'd been the one to figure it out.

Giles, coming to realization, added "And…that I didn't see anything."

The grip on little-Louie's glass tightened so hard it could have shattered "She called me a child, she said because I spent all day in the arcade that I was a child. I'm going to fucking kill her!"

"She did a spell." Buffy realized, after all they knew it was magic; they just didn't know it was so close to home.

Giles, having now remembered the spell Willow had told him she'd preformed the night before "Yes… to have her will done. Whatever she says is coming true."

"And you all were affected. I probably only escaped because I'm the Slayer; some kind of natural immunity." Buffy was clearly in denial, her mind clouded with nothing but love.

"Yeah. Right. You're marrying Spike because you're so right for each other." Xander mocked.

"Xander..." Buffy looked pretty upset and Spike glared at the boy "That's it… you're off the usher list."

Louie just shrugged, looking into her glass "I don't know, Spike is kind of totally hot so…" this gets her a quirked brow from the vampire in question.

Giles, as usual, turned into the adult of the group "People, Willow is out there and she probably doesn't know what she's doing."

"We gotta find her." Xander starts to panic.

Buffy, walking over and snatching the half empty glass from Little-Louie, said "Before somebody gets really hurt."

Giles nods in agreement and starts forward, falling over his couch and landing on the other side. Spike trying to stifle a laugh as the others rushed to help.

After some debate they headed out, leaving Giles with his sore leg and darkness, Little-Louie however had insisted on coming along, almost biting at Xander when he spoke out against the idea.

At least Louie wasn't the only one he did want to be their though "Why does he have to come?" 

"Xander, Spike is going to be my husband. I want him included." Buffy smiled; her and Spikes entwined fingers swinging lightly.

Spike however didn't seem to care about anyone other than himself and his bride "I agree with Xander here. Seems like a lot of work for people who aren't us."

"Spike, these are my friends. Besides, it's kinda my job." Buffy just shrugs.

Spike pats her hand "For now."

"What? You want me to stop working?" They open the door to Buffy and Willow's room. All enter save Spike who remains outside talking, well little-Louie twirls into the room with her dress fanning around her… she was actually starting to feel like a little girl again…not good "Let's see — do I want you to give up killing all my friends? Yeah, I've given it some thought."

There's a large circle burnt into the carpet that little-Louie seems to ignore in favor of jumping on the beds "This is burned."

"Ta'hoffren. Bastard, he's opened a portal here." Anya seemed to be the only one who knew what was going on "Who?"

"Oh, fluffy." Spike, holding up one of Buffy's skirts ; an orange one with orange fuzzy stuff around the bottom "Wear this to the rehearsal dinner and the whole thing's off."

Buffy just rolled her eyes as Louie bounced over to raid the girls closet with a little giggle "Shut-up, honey."

"Ta'hoffren. He made me a demon 1120 years ago." Anya frowned obviously knowing more than they did.

"Why would he attack Willow?" Buffy asked while Little-Louie held up a blue silk shirt like a dress.

"I don't believe he did…" Anya pointed out as Louie started twirling with the shirt against her, they all looked over at the miniature Wendigo and it seemed to snap her out of her strange daze.

She quickly threw the shirt onto Buffy's bed and played with her hair, clearly embarrassed "sorry… the spell must be… kicking in… so Willow?"

"I just have to get to his Blood Crypt and summon him then we can get Willow back, shouldn't take too long." The ex-demon shrugged before heading out the door, the others quickly following.

Well, some were quicker than most "Hey, wait for me, my legs are too little!"

Spike rolled his eyes and turned to pick up the dark haired girl with his free hand, settling her on her hip. The others looked at him in curiously "What? We either carry the bloody chit, or stop every five bleedin' minutes so little-legs here can keep up."

They seemed to just accept this as little-Louie settled herself against the vampire, he smelt of old leather, faded smoke and some strong sweet musky smell she couldn't place. Spike smelt nice.

They made it to the cemetery without too much hassle, dodged a few demon's that had chased Xander and somewhere along the way Spike had ended up giving the ebony haired child a piggyback, with her little arms wrapped tight around his neck "I'd been dumped, I was miserable; doing a few vengeance spells …boils on the penis, nothing fancy…."

Xander didn't really want to hear about what could one day be his fate "Please skip ahead."

"Ta'hoffren got wind of me, he offered to elevate me."

Buffy was more than a tad concerned by all of this "Meaning?"

"He made me a demon."

Buffy fell into a panic "Oh God, Willow. But, you can summon this guy from this crypt, right? You can make him stop... oh my God! Wouldn't this be a perfect place for pictures?"

She runs up to a crypt with ivy growing all along side it, dragging Spike alongside her, Little Louie jumping off his back as they went "I'm not posing for chattel."

A large horned green demon wandered their way. Xander saw it first "Hey… demon."

Buffy walks up to the demon while Little-Louie hides behind Spike, grabbing onto his arm in fear due to her child-forming mind "Okay, listen… now we're gonna do this without ruining the foliage."

Buffy and the demon go at it. She tosses him aside just as another appears. She realizes that they're just going to keep coming and makes the only decision she can "Let's go!" 

"Off we go Kitten!" Spike mutters as he quickly grabs the little girl up and rushes to follow the others

All five of them run inside the crypt, Buffy and Spike grabbing the lid of a tomb and barricading it as best they can. Anya runs to the far side, kneeling down and drawing a circle surrounding herself in the dirt. "Blesséd be, the name of Ta'hoffren. Let this space be now a gateway to the world of Arash Ma'har, where demons are spawned."

Meanwhile Buffy is being choked by a demon who's reached through a window, spike calling out to his 'fiancé' just as Louie comes out from nowhere, scaling the wall and sinking her sharp pointed teeth into its flesh.

Xander feeling that the door could give at any second calls out "Not doin' well here."

As the demon recoiled its bloody arm Buffy raced over to help with the door while little-Louie spat out the putrid green blood, trying not to gag.

Spike, trying to hold the large stone in place looks at his beloved "They're strong, and I can't fight. If they get in, I don't know if I can protect you."

Buffy however gets pretty offended "You think you have to protect me?"

"Oh, not with the Girl-Power bit!" The demons finally bust their way in. Spike and Xander get their asses kicked and Buffy tries to kick ass. Anya abandoned her chanting to wallop the one attacking Xander and is promptly tossed aside.

Spike was trying to hold the door as Buffy struggled with a demon "I'm scared…" a timid little voice came from below Spike, he saw Louie tucked under the tail of his duster with big terrified doe eyes and shaking in her pretty pink dress. She was fully regressed now. Merely a child.

Normally Spike would have laughed and enjoyed her fear, not like he hadn't killed children before, but she looked up at him with so much trust and need of saving, for the second time that night the girl pulled at the few heartstrings Dru was so good at tugging "Hush now luv, no need to fret, got big bad here and the Slayer so just…"

In that moment yet another demon bursts onto the scene right through the doors. It knocks Spike on his back and small Louie clean across the room, hitting her head on a casket. Buffy gets pissed and kicks both the demon's asses, just to get them out of the way and runs over to Spike. "Oh, Spike, are you okay?"

Spike looks up at her with sheer desire and a glow growl "Slayer…"

apparently that's some code for climb on and suck face. Anya and Xander are still beating up on that same demon. Louie moving slowly as blood trickles down the right of her face, from the gash on her hairline as Willow suddenly appears in the crypt "Let the healing power begin. Let my will be safe again. As these words of peace are spoken, let this harmful spell be broken."

Thunder crashes and lightning flashes. Suddenly, the demons disappear. Buffy and Spike pull away from each other, a look of horror and disgust passing over their faces "Oh, bloody hell!"

They both jump up, each wiping their mouth and gagging and carrying on so "Spike lips! Lips of Spike!"

All of them suddenly realize Willow is there. They all turn slowly to look at her. She smiles sheepishly and waves "Hi, guys." 

A small groan comes from behind one of the tombs a woman's pale hand shooting up and slapping against the hard stone, Louie's messy black hair peaking over the top as the strands of her pink dress hanging off her now fully grown body, having it torn apart as her body grew out.

Her eyes scanned the room, all eyes now turned from Willow to Louie, whose eyes drifted to where the others couldn't see behind the tomb and sighed in relief as she grasped her own body "my boobs! Oh thank holy fuck!"

Anya gave Xander a smack to the back of his head as he tilted his head to try and get a better look-see. No one seemed to notice Spike stood on his tiptoes, head tilted to the side, his tounge pressing into the roof of his mouth with a cocked brow as he caught just the outline shape on her right side "Um guys… naked lady here. Coverage?"

Buffy was about to offer her coat but it wouldn't have closed over Louie's heavy hourglass frame so instead she punched Spike in the stomach and tore his duster off to throw it over to the girl "oh, Bloody hell! You could have just bleeding asked you stupid bint!"

Buffy's only answer was a sly shrug… when Louie emerged from behind the stone coffin in nothing but Spike's coat all eyes turned back to Willow, yeah, no one looked happy.

The next day, after Willow was rightfully told off, Xander fixed the basement window, Buffy took a long boiling hot shower and Louie got some of her own clothes and ate some guy whole thigh with paprika sauce, they all gathered in Giles's kitchen. Willow was making chocolate-chip cookies. Plating them up with an already large amount on the plate Anya was holding "How long are you going to keep making these?"

"Oh, until I don't feel so horribly guilty. I figure about a million chips from now. Also, I have to detail Giles' car." She takes the plate from Anya and walks over to where Xander and Giles are sitting. Xander is holding up a clock to test Giles "Time?"

"A-ha.. Five past two. Clear as day." the older man smiles.

Willow offers the plate to Giles, the father Ira had never been, with a sheepish smile "Look, cookies. A very not-evil thing I did. Oatmeal?"

Giles removes his glasses, takes a cookie and scowls "Yes, very funny, they're chocolate chip. I can see them. I still need my glasses, though. You could be more specific and give me 20/20."

Willow smiles, happy he doesn't seem angry with her anymore, and walks over to Buffy who's glaring at Spike, who's tied up again.

"Eat a cookie; ease my pain?" the redhead offered the Slayer who happily took one and bit into its sugary goodness "Mm. Better?"

"Well, baking lifts about 30% of my guilt, but only 7% of my inner turmoil. Guess that'll just take awhile." Louie came out of the bathroom at that exact moment with a lick of her lips as she eyed the plate in her friend's hands.

"Oohh cookie's, now this is an apology" Louie shoveled one into her mouth before snatching a good handful more before Xander could get his hands on them and took a seat beside Buffy, who along with Willow smiled, amused by the ebony haired girl.

"Don't I get a cookie?" Spike grumbled, more annoyed he hadn't been offered than anything else.

"No!"

"Well, I gotta have something. I still have _Buffy_ taste in my mouth." The disgust was clear on his face, he was Spike, William the Bloody, Slayer of Slayer's and he had… oh god it's to vial to comprehend.

Buffy snorted in utter contempt "You're a pig, Spike."

A cruel smile crept onto the vampires lips "Yeah…well I'm not the one who wanted, 'Wind Beneath My Wings' for the first dance." He says it loud enough for Giles, Anya, and Xander to hear. They all turn to stare at Buffy from the living room. Louie almost choking on a piece of cookie in her mouth.

Buffy looks around at them with a pout "That was the spell." Buffy gets all embarrassed and walks into the kitchen. Willow scowls at Spike and shoves a cookie in his mouth before following her best friend.

Recovering from her coughing fit Louie shakes her head with a smile at Spike "so you don't think you crazy kids could make it work? I hear couples counseling is a bit hit these days."

Spike glared daggers at her before swallowing the cookie bite that had been forced into his mouth "Jealous, Pet?"

She raised a perfectly arched brow at him with a smile "in your dreams sweetie"

"Not what you were sayin' last night Kitten, what was it? S'right, you think I'm 'kind of totally hot'. Aint that right, Luv?" his smirk was teasing as his head tilted and scared brow twitched, daring her to deny it.

What he wasn't prepared for was Louie to jump off the stool and bend down in front of him, for her to return his smile with those ruby lips and a twinkle in her eye "Oh baby, yeah your hot, no doubt in that. I mean, come on I've got eyes… but I know something you don't."

"And what's that then, Pet?" His icy blue eyes never left the baby blue orbs taunting him.

"You couldn't handle me even if I came with instructions." Louie smiled, blowing him a kiss before strutting over to her friends, Anya taking a seat beside the Wendigo to try and discus this girls night they were meant to have…

Spike followed after her with a click of his tongue, taking another bite of his cookie and shaking his head… bloody women.


End file.
